Give it a Shot
by WolverinesDarlin
Summary: Began to re do it, all new first chapter, thinking about switching the romance to OC/Nick not sure yet. - Our favorite group of survivors pick up a new girl, they get along with her pretty well. Will dangers and other strangers tear the group apart?
1. Chapter 1

_I do not own; _

_~The infected people – including the specials_

_~Rochelle, Nick, Coach, or Ellis_

**X.x.X.x**

A small group of four walked silently down the empty streets, close together and weapons raised and pointed out in front of them. As they walked, small cries could be heard echoing in the abandoned city streets, the closer they got the louder the cries were. Soon the cries could be heard as sobs and the group tensed at the image they got whenever they heard crying.

Finally Ellis could take it no more, "Guys, that a Witch?" He asked in a hushed tone.

"Sounds like one." Coach agreed.

"No." The young woman dressed in pink disagreed, being the only woman in the group she was convinced she was the only one who could tell the difference in crying. "The crying is different…" Rochelle listened closely. The crying wasn't loud and there wasn't any wailing, like a witch, instead it was soft and tortured, like a young girl.

"You think it's another survivor?" Ellis asked just as softly as before, straining to get an idea where the crying was coming from.

"Maybe, let's go see." Rochelle started to walk into a library, where she figured the cries were emanating from.

The three men; Coach, heavier man with dark skin, late forties, he wore a collared purple shirt with yellow short sleeves, Nick, a built man with pale skin, mid thirties, he wore a white suit with a blue button up under the stained white jacket and brown loafers, finally Ellis, late twenties, a skinny tanned young man dressed in overalls that was tucked down with the straps tied around almost like a belt, a yellow tee shirt and a baseball cap, followed close behind her.

Once inside the small group explored the empty library, "Betcha this is the quietest a library has ever been." Nick quipped only to get hushed by the young woman that was leading the men to where she believed the crying was coming from. Slowly they went upstairs and started to open the doors in the hallway, only to find empty offices until they saw a young woman standing at the end of the hall staring up at the ceiling, her arms limp at her side.

"Ma'am?" Coach asked quietly and gently pushed past Rochelle to take the lead his hand outstretched to touch her shoulder but he held his pistol out in front of him as well, just in case. "Ma'am, you alright?" He asked further his fingers almost touched her shoulder when she spun around with teeth bared and eyes empty. He jumped back and fired a single shot, point blank, between her eyes. The zombified woman fell back against the wall behind her and slid down dramatically, a streak of blood painted against the peeling wall paper as she fell.

"You alright?" Ellis asked quietly as Coach turned around, his eyes a little wider than usual, but even a surprise like that was nothing new to the zombie apocalypse veteran.

The apocalypse, already, had lasted nearly a month now and together as a group for just as long. Too long in the survivors' opinion, cabin fever was beginning to take effect but they knew they couldn't separate if they wanted to live. None of them knew exactly what had happened to create the virus, or even how it got to so many people, but they did know that they were stuck until they could find rescue.

"Yeah," Coach replied slowly, "yeah I'm good. She took me by surprise is all…" He said with his usual soft spoken, but deep, voice. To Rochelle, his voice was a lot like the actor Morgan Freeman's.

"Hey" Ellis interrupted, "cryin's stopped."

The other three stopped and listened, coming to the same conclusion. "You're right…" Rochelle's brows smashed together and she lifted her head higher and stuck her nose in the air, as though she was looking to smell out the girl who'd been crying.

"You smell something, girl? Hm" Nick prodded with a rue smile.

In return Rochelle's head snapped back to look at him, "Excuse me?" She spat.

"Nothing" He said with a small chuckle and looked away as though he was not paying any attention to her, however he was still watching her with his peripherals.

"Guys. I think she's in here." Ellis offered, while they had been going back and forth he had followed the soft sound of 'sniffling', and was standing next to the door he thought would reveal the 'crying girl' at last. The door was the last door in the hallway on the left, the door that zombie girl had been standing next to.

The others made their way to the door where he was standing, stepping over the body gingerly. Ellis put his hand on the knob and pushed the door open after counting to three on his fingers. They all burst inside the room with their weapons raised and looking around like a ridiculous group of SWAT team wannabe's. In the far corner of the room was a girl, she was hunched over and crying softly. Her back was facing them so they couldn't see her face. In front of her was a body, a small body. Before proper conclusions could be drawn or thought out the girl whipped around, her legs stayed where they were, her knees pointing at the small form in front of her yet her top half was isolated from her bottom half and turned to face the group of four.

Everyone backed up a small step when the noticed the magnum in her left hand, pointing it straight at Ellis' head.

**X.x.X.x**

They had found their crying girl – woman…? Ellis looked her up and down quickly but he was more concerned with the gun barrel pointing at his face. What he did notice was the tear tracks that had cleared an evident path down her filthy face; she was covered with dirt and blood spots from head to toe, most likely the same as he looked, hell he knew the rest of the group looked like that.

The young man with the trucker hat stared at her awkwardly, waiting for her to lower the powerful sidearm in her left hand. However she stared back, unmoving. Quickly, efficiently, she looked him and the other three up and down, looking for signs of infection; bites, scratches, bloodshot eyes, pasty skin, but she didn't see any so, slowly, she lowered her weapon.

"I wouldn't have done it if there were any other way." She muttered suddenly.

"What?" Ellis asked and took a step closer.

"She was infected. I had never seen an infected child. She… I didn't know until she attacked me. She was just huddled in this corner, I thought she was hiding. Then she turned around. She was eating an arm." She made a pathetic face. "I was so freaked out, I'd never seen..." She closed her eyes to collect herself, when she opened them again she continued. "She came after me… I had to shoot her."

Rochelle frowned and glanced over to the limp body of the small girl, she couldn't have been older than 6 or 7 years old.Quietly the dark girl made an 'aw' sound under her breath, and her frown deepened – _that's just not fair_ she thought

The young woman stood up and dusted herself off. "So." She wiped the wetness away from her eyes with the back of her hand. "You guys are survivors too?"

Ellis nodded and cleared his throat, "Yah. Ah'm Ellis." He began, then pointing to them as he named them he continued, "That there is Rochelle, cranky-suit-man there is Nick, and we call the big guy Coach."

"Hi." She said sheepishly and straightened out her forest green, long sleeved, shirt before waving a little.

"I'm sorry about the girl…" Rochelle started. "That must have been hell for you."

She nodded a bit and looked down at the small girl pitifully, "Yeah, I just hope I don't have to find another kid…" she said softly.

"I hope so too." Rochelle said sincerely.

"Look not to interrupt a touching sentimental moment. But we really shouldn't stay in one spot for too long." Nick interrupted he was in the door way with his gun out, looking down the hallway uneasily.

"He means well" Rochelle whispered as she watched Nick duck in and out of the doorway, making sure there were no surprise attacks from any of the walkers outside.

"He's right. We should get going." Coach agreed and the 'new girl' nodded.

"Yeah," She said before grabbing the curtain hanging on the window and ripped it off the rod. Ellis caught on to the gesture and moved to help grabbing the other side and assisting the woman in covering the young girls body with the bright blue curtain.

**X.x.X.x**

Once the group had left the building they formed into, almost a bird like formation as they walked down the streets.

Coach had point, Rochelle and Nick were in the middle, while Ellis and the new lady were covering the back.

Ellis looked over at her, she looked very tense and her eyes were darting back and forth and up and down – she was on high alert. She had an M16 rifle in her hands, held out in front of her, there were two magnums holstered to each leg, a hunting knife was strapped to the small of her back, almost resting on her – for lack of better word – ass and she had a backpack slung over her left shoulder which would lift up and then fall back and smack her side with each step she took.

She must have felt him looking at her because she cleared her throat and looked at him with a raised eyebrow. He quickly diverted his gaze from her back to the back of Rochelle's head, who's ponytail was bobbing back and forth with each step _she _took.

"I'm Infinity by the way." She said, breaking the silence.

His head snapped back to look at her, "Cool name!"

"Sshh!" Nick hushed. "You want all the zombies to hear you?" He asked impatiently while looking over his shoulder to the young boy behind him. When Ellis simply shrugged he rolled his eyes and muttered, "Moron…" before turning back to face forward.

Ellis rolled his eyes and shook his head at the man in front of him, earning a small laugh from 'Infinity'.

"Is that really your name?" He asked quietly and she shook her head.

"Nah," She paused and checked her rifle as she chose her next words. "no, my dad used to call me that."

He looked at her curiously, "How come?"

"Cus of my tattoo…" She smiled a little and blinked a few times when she looked up at him, to him it was like she batted her eyes at him to seem 'innocent' even with the tattoo.

"Which is…" He squinted his eyes.

Laughing Infinity lowered her weapon a small bit, relaxing. "An infinity symbol…" She said slowly.

Ellis smiled. "Right, of course. Ah knew that" He drawled the last bit. "So do you live here? In Savannah?" he asked.

"Ha, no." She threw her head back and laughed, "I actually came down here for medical school."

"Why'd you say it like that?" He asked a twinge of defense in his voice.

She looked at him with realization in her eye, "oh, uhm… this just isn't my scene. I'm actually from Boston, more of a city girl than a… whatever Savannah is…"

"Really?"

"Really what?" She asked and looked ahead, they were falling a bit behind the rest of them so she began to walk a bit faster to keep up with Nick and Rochelle who were in front of them, and they seemed to be keeping up with Coach just fine.

"Really, you're from Boston" Ellis said and moved to keep up with her.

"Yeah" She breathed and then began to slow down when they were in a reasonable distance from the two people ahead of them.

Ellis fell into step with her and looked back down at the short, 5 foot woman. "Medical school huh?"

"Yeah, I finally settled for being a nurse. For almost all my life I had wanted to be a cop or at least in the military."

"What changed?"

"I dunno actually." She shrugged and half frowned. "I just kinda… decided that's what I wanted to do. Maybe it had to do with the lack of discipline in the police force in my home town and the lack of support from my family to join the military."

"Ah," He nodded, "I see." He looked back forward and looked some of the burnt down buildings with a strange sense of hopelessness he didn't even realize that Rochelle was watching him closely from the front, jealousy was rolling off of her in invisible waves. When the resumed talking she looked back ahead and began to make small talk with the crankier man of the group.

"Yeah." Infinity was silent for a while, looking around some more. He noted that the street seemed a bit too quiet. They hadn't even come across a single zombie, the streets were all empty. _Weird_ he thought and squinted his eyes as he scanned the surrounding area.

"So what did you do? Do you live here?"

He looked at her and cleared his throat. "Yah, yeah I live here. 'Work with a couple of mah buddies at a mechanical shop. Ah'm in a band too. Yep me and mah buddies are the best in town. Ah'm bass of course." Ellis finished and looked down at her, she was grinning ear to ear.

"What? Wha'd Ah say?"

She shook her head and her smile dropped for a second before reappearing again. "Huh? Oh nothing you didn't say anything. I just think I'm going to like you is all."

"Why's that?" He asked with a raised eyebrow as he lifted his hat and pulled it back down quickly, readjusting it.

"'Cause you're cute" She said with a shy smile and a small shrug.

"Oh." He blushed a bit and readjusted his hat again, "You know I…"

"SSHH!" She held up her hand in a stop motion and stopped herself. "Do you hear that?" she whispered.

Ellis froze and brought his gun back up, looking around, "No. What?" He whispered back.

"Smoker!" Nick announced.

Coach ducked out of the way and began to shoot in the general direction of the 'special infected' but he wasn't quick enough, "Gah! Smoker's got me" He cried as the long, snake like tongue wrapped around his waist.

"Damn!" Infinity exclaimed, dropped her bag onto the street, and ran up to where the Smoker was it was still in the process of pulling the man off his feet and towards him. Quickly she aimed up the rifle barrel to the smokers head, jammed it up under the side of his jaw and pulled the trigger, the special infected flew backwards – dead before it hit the ground.

When the body hit the ground she lowered her weapon so the barrel was pointed at the ground and stared at the mangled body in front of her, the smokers' ten foot long tongue was moving a little and she jumped back a bit. However when she traced the tongue back to Coach she realized why, he was still trying to get the slimy, rope like tongue away from his waist. "Damn those things" He muttered and Infinity smiled a bit before kicking at the lanky, limp, body of the smoker and joining the rest of the group. "You alright?" she called.

"Yeah I should be fine." He assured, she was about to say something about the gash on his head when she heard moaning erupt from somewhere in the deserted city.

Rochelle, Ellis and Nick ran up behind them. "We got a horde coming our way!" Rochelle yelled.

Infinity was about to ask from which direction when her question was answered. They were coming from three directions; behind them, to the right and to the left. "Only way now is forward." Nick said dryly. Infinity looked around, of course they stopped in an intersection where there was no place to hole down and funnel the group into. _Typical_

"We need to move, now!" Rochelle ordered and started to run down the only 'open' road, Nick ran right behind her and Coach behind him. Infinity spun around to face the first few while running backwards, firing off short bursts from her rifle into the horde of infected people. Ellis stayed beside her and covered the sides.

She knew she wasn't killing any, she didn't have good enough aim for headshots, but at least she could

"Reloading" She announced and pulled back further behind Ellis so he could cover her while she reloaded her P-90 with practiced eased. However in the middle of reloading on infected, male, teenager had dodged Ellis' cover fire and came up on her left.

She hadn't even noticed him until after his fist came down on her face. She stumbled to the right a bit and dropped her gun, clattering onto the ground. She let out a small noise at the impact but swept her magnum out of her right holster pressed the barrel to his forehead and pulled the trigger, _can't miss that. _She could hardly resist quoting 'Trinity' from Matrix, when 'dodge this' popped into her head.

Ellis announced that he had to reload his shotgun and Infinity groaned, before snatching up her rifle and slinging it over her shoulder and pulling out her other magnum to use temporarily. "Where the hell are the others?" She barked and shot a couple of times into a couple of people who were getting to close.

"Dunno" He said dismissively, more focused on reloading his gun.

Infinity bashed another to the ground and put a bullet in his head. She re-holstered it and reloaded her rifle.

"We need to fall back" He ordered and she nodded in agreement.

"Alright let's go"

The two of them ran off, firing the occasional shot behind them, hoping to ditch the significantly slower people. Once they had caught up with the others they realized they had just missed another horde. Rochelle, Nick, and Coach were all standing next to each other with fresh blood splattered over their clothes and skin, and bodies were scattered all around them; on the streets, sidewalks, on top of nearby cars, and inside some of the stores- the glass windows shot out.

"Great." Nick sighed. "My suit is…"

"Nobody cares Nick!" Rochelle shouted as Coach began to patch her up with some of the medical supplies he had left. That's when Infinity remembered her pack.

"Eff you." He mumbled and pulled out a handkerchief from inside his stained jacket and began to try and wipe off the red mess, merely smearing it and making it worse. "Shit" He mumbled and disgarded the idea of trying to save the suit. Maybe he should have gotten a red suit instead.

"What happened to you guys?" Ellis asked Infinity turned to face him, ready to say she had to go back for her bag but then noticed her bag was slung over his shoulder and she smiled.

"I think it was an ambush" Nick bit out, and Coach shook his head pitifully. "It wasn't an ambush Nick" He said in a low voice, like a father telling his son that there was no such thing as the boogey man, and he merely saw a tree shadow.

The middle aged man scoffed, "Then what do you call that?" He asked and gestured to the many bodies scattered around the street.

"Zombieland," Rochelle hissed when Coach tightened the gauze around her forearm, she had fallen while running and had scrapped up her arm. "We're in a middle of a zombie apocalypse, this shit happens" She finished and nodded at Coach as a thank you.

"Speaking of which what happened to you guys?" She asked as she picked up her AK-47 off of the ground. "you fall behind?" She asked and looked Ellis up and down carefully, as though making sure he wasn't hurt.

"Yeah, you can say that" Infinity nodded and looked around at the limp bodies that littered the ground. Silently she began to wonder how long it would take to clean up all the mess once the apocalypse was over.

"We should keep moving" Coach said finally and looked around, "Where's Nick?" He asked and the rest of the group looked around, while they had been talking Nick had silently disappeared. "oh, god, smoker got him!" Ellis exclaimed and his eyes wide.

Just as the group was about to split up and look for him he poked his head out of a clothing store window without a shirt. "I'm in here moron" He said and rolled his eyes before disappearing back into the store.

Rochelle looked up at the store's neon, "Private Label?" She asked, her nose wrinkled up.

Shrugging Infinity led the way into the clothing store behind Nick, Rochelle followed her, then Ellis, and Coach. "Nick?" Infinity called into the darkened store, the transition from sunlight to almost complete black caused her to see spots.

"Men's department" His voice called out.

"Where?" Ellis asked this time.

A sigh could be heard from somewhere and just as his head popped out for them to see Rochelle tripped over a fallen mannequin and fell to her hands and knees. Coach grabbed her arm and helped her up, "You alright?"

"yeah I'm good, can't see a damn thing" Soon after however the group had gotten used to the dark and navigated the area as well as Nick was. "What are you doing?" Rochelle asked as she walked up behind the shirtless man.

Pulling a black t shirt over his head Nick turned around, "White is not good… right now."

She nodded, "oookay" She said and quirked an eyebrow before shrugging and moving to find the women's department. Her tight jeans, tighter pink tee shirt and flat leather, ankle high, boots had served her well over the past month. The zombies couldn't grab onto any loose material so it kept her from getting snatched easily, however they clothes were extremely filthy, maybe it was time for new attire. Ellis walked behind Nick just as the man finished pulling up 'his' new jeans. Ellis made a small noise, "Sorry man" He said and turned around to leave.

Nick turned around himself, his back had been towards the young hick, "You peepin' on me overalls?" He asked and Ellis turned around, his mouth ready to defend himself but the smirk on Nick's face told him he wasn't being an ass.

After a moment Ellis shrugged, "Eh, nothing special anyway"

The clean clothed man's mouth fell open. "I beg to differ." He said with a deep voice, though still not mad, making Ellis smile.

Ellis shrugged again and nodded his head at the older man before turning to find new clothes of his own.

**X.x.X.x**

Infinity was busy staring at herself in the mirror with disgust touching her face with her fingertips and groaning. She still had tear stains on her still filthy face. She looked down at her green shirt and jeans and frowned, they were even worse than her face. "Damn" she muttered and was about to look for a bathroom when she saw Rochelle walk past behind her with clothes draped over her arms, like she was shopping.

Spinning around Infinity chased after her, "Whatcha doin'?" She asked and fell into step with the only other woman in the group.

Smiling Rochelle shrugged, "I need new clothes, if Nick gets to, I get to."

"That's a mature outlook" Infinity said with a quirked eyebrow as she looked over at the darker woman.

She shrugged, "It's an apocalypse, I don't think rules really apply anymore." She said stiffly before turning right and going down the next aisle, towards the dressing rooms. Infinity kept in step thinking about what Rochelle has just said. _Was that really true? Was the world so far gone that it didn't matter anymore._ Looking around the store she found her answer, they weren't the first people to 'go shopping' here.

"I suppose…" Infinity started as Rochelle opened one of the dressing room doors and stepped inside. "I mean people 'shop'" She air quoted, despite the fact Rochelle couldn't see, "Even in less drastic times, like a hurricane…" _Not that that isn't drastic…_ she continued silently.

"Exactly," Rochelle replied through the door, "Here-" She tossed a top over the door, making Infinity lunge forward to catch it. "try this on." She finished before stepping out in her own new attire; a long sleeved purple v-neck, new skinny jeans, but the same boots. "What do you think?" She asked and stuck a pose for her new friend.

Infinity nodded her head back and forth, weighing the decision in her head. "Turn around" She order with squinted eyes. Rochelle did so gracefully, taking her time. "Eh," Infinity nodded her head and smirked. "It's hot and seems efficient enough…"

The young woman smiled, "Awesome, now go try yours on." She ordered.

Nodding she complied and stepped into the same dressing room that Rochelle had been in moments earlier. As she pulled the shirt off the hanger she realized it was the same style shirt as Rochelle's only it was a dark red color. "You making us twins?" She asked while pulling off her dirty green shirt to pull on the clean red one.

Laughter could be heard through the wood door between them, "What if I am?" She asked before pausing, "Hey what size jeans?" she added.

The door opened and Infinity was wearing the 'back up jeans' Rochelle had brought if the other jeans didn't fit. "I think these are good." She smirked and Rochelle smiled. "You look hot sweety" She complimented.

Infinity smiled, they both had on v-neck shirts; Rochelle with purple and the sleeves down, Infinity with red and the sleeves rolled halfway up her forearm. The both had on the same pair of skinny jeans; Infinity's was a size bigger than Rochelle who was a size 7. Rochelle had on her brown leather ankle boots, and Infinity had on her black converse.

"Stylin'" Rochelle laughed. "Let's go find a bathroom…" She suggested before leading the way back down towards the bathrooms.

"Kay," Infinity said as she began ripping the tags off her new clothes.

**X.x.X.x**

Ellis quirked an eyebrow as he looked at his new appearance in the mirror, Coach stepped up behind him and tried to see himself in the cracked mirror. "What do you think Coach?" he asked and turned around with arms spread wide so the older man could see his near outfit, lightwash jeans and a green t-shirt.

"What are we girls?" Nick asked as he stepped into the mirror in front of Ellis, making the younger man step out of the way so he could have the mirror to himself while he slicked back his long brown hair. It wasn't exceedingly long, if he had to compare his hair to someone it would be 'Wesley' from Princess Bride, only his was dark and not blond – he liked it that way.

"It's fine son" Coach encouraged the southern boy while glaring at the back of the older man's head.

Smiling Ellis lowered his arms. "Thanks Coach." He said quietly before realizing Coach hadn't changed from his purple collared shirt and khaki's. "You're not gonna get changed?" He asked. The older man shook his head with a disconcerning frown.

"Nah" He shrugged, "don't really need to"

Ellis shrugged and Nick turned around to face Coach and scrunched his eyebrows together but said nothing.

"Where'd the girls run off to?" Ellis asked suddenly.

**X.x.X.x**

Both women were in the girls bathroom using Purell to wash their faces.

Suddenly Infinity hissed, "What's wrong?" Rochelle asked and turned to look at her. Then, since most of the filth was gone now, she realized there was a baseball sized bruise on the other woman's left cheekbone. "What happened?"

"Some asshole, infected of course, came up and punched me in the face earlier." She explained quickly, "When I passed by it with my fingers I must have bumped a bruise… how bad is it?" She asked quietly and turned her head towards her friend.

She winced, "Kinda bad…" Rochelle answered honestly.

All Infinity could do was shrug and hope it would stop throbbing soon. They finished washing their faces and hands quickly. Finishing off the makeover with freshened hair do's, merely re pulling their dark hair into pony tails again so there wasn't loose hair falling out around their faces, which would compromise their ability to see.

With one final look in the mirror both women smiled, "What I wouldn't give for some makeup right now" Infinity said sadly but still seemed happier with her appearance than before, despite still not feeling as nice as she would like.

"What I wouldn't give for a show-" Rochelle's sentence was cut short with a hand clamping over her mouth, Infinity's other hand holding the back of her head so she couldn't move out of the constraining grasp. "Don't say that word." She hissed.

Rochelle nodded and Infinity released her slowly, "What about perfume then…" Rochelle offered and Infinity paused to think for a moment, "That would be good" She nodded.

Smiling the two women linked arms, on a quest to find perfume.

**X.x.X.x**

Meanwhile the three men were walking the perimeter of the small department store, looking for the 'M.I.A.' women. "If I were a woman where would I go?" Ellis thought aloud.

Nick scoffed, "That shouldn't be too difficult for you to figure out Ellis" he said with a smirk.

Ellis scowled but ignored the other man, "What about the bathroom?" He offered.

"Good idea Ellis" Nick 'praised', "see I knew it wouldn't take you too long" Again, Ellis frowned but said nothing to the man now dressed in almost all black; black t shirt, dark wash jeans, however he had the same brown loafers.

The three men cut down an aisle, passing by women's lingerie only to run straight into the two women, still arm in arm. "Oh hey gentlemen" Rochelle greeted, "We were just coming to find you"

Nick opened his mouth to say something when he was cut off by something be squirted in his general direction. His mouth snapped shut to keep it from going into his mouth, Ellis waved his hand in the air and coughed a few times and Coach made a strange face at the smell. "Like it?" Rochelle asked happily, "We found some perfume, we smell nice… and then we thought, wouldn't it be nice if we _all _smelled nice?" both women smiled innocently as Nick pulled the middle of his shirt to his nose so he could smell the cologne. Everyone waited for his thought on the smell, even the other two men.

"It's actually not that bad but," he held his index finger up in the air, "Don't ever do that again" He scolded. However, neither of the two women heard what he said after, 'it's actually not that bad', and smiled widely.

Infinity went over to Ellis and grabbed her bag, "Thanks for grabbing this" She smiled softly and Ellis blushed a bit, "No problem" he said with a dismissive wave. She smiled again and opened the bag and dumped thee perfume bottles inside; one for her, one for Rochelle, and one for the three men, then she zipped the bag back up and slung it over her shoulder.

After pointing out that the two women looked unusually clean the women told the men that there was Purell in the bathroom that they could use to clean up the way they did, Rochelle also mentioned that they had taken a few bottles for the road.

Once the men had finished cleaning up themselves and shaved the group of five decided to head back out into the dangerous streets of Savannah.

This time all three men were walking behind the two women who were talking back and forth about 'girl' stuff.

After awhile Ellis could hardly stand it, "Why are we listen' to all this sissy stuff" The normally patient young man huffed.

"Because they are our ticket to repopulating" Nick stated with a smirk. The younger man made a face bringing a chuckle from Nick only to get slapped upside the head by Coach who shook his head at him. Grabbing the back of his head and looking over to Coach who was on his left Nick glared, only to hear a soft laugh from the younger man to his right. "Yeah yuck it up Ellis, you have one coming" He warned with a scowl before replacing it with an evil smirk.

They fell back into silence, listening to the women giggle up front.. She moved up faster and stood next to Rochelle who was once again in the middle. They couldn't make out the specific words but whenever they laughed Ellis could have sworn they were talking about him.

Still he wasn't paying too close attention anyway, he was too busy looking Infinity up and down from the back.

She and Rochelle had both changed but one thing that he hadn't noticed before was that Infinity had black fingerless gloves on now, smart. He began to look back down the girls' body and then smirked once he got down to her legs, she still had the size sticker on the back of her pants. Silently he wondered if he should speed up and rip the sticker off himself but figured that might go bad pretty quickly.

Infinity and Rochelle laughed, and he was brought out of his reverie. Though their laughter was cut short when they all felt the ground shake.

Rochelle stopped dead in her tracks, bringing everyone else to a halt as well. "That had to be a Tank…" Rochelle muttered. However after the initial shaking there wasn't anything else, just eerie silence.

"Uhm, what's a tank?" Infinity whispered and everyone turned to look at her in shock. "What?" She asked and ducked her head down to avoid the awkward looks she was receiving.

"You've never had a run-in with a tank?" Ellis asked with shock.

Shaking her head and shrugging, "Nope"

"Lemme guess," Nick started, "The only other special you've run into was a smoker" He said with a raised eyebrow.

"No" She said with a defensive tone and crossed her arms. "No, I've had others… like that guy that pukes up on you… and brings all those other zombies."

"That's a boomer" Nick said in a condescending voice which made her even more defensive.

"Oh yeah, what about that spitter lady!" She nearly shouted, "The one that spits acid at you"

"Close, she's just a 'spitter,'" Nick laughed and quirked an eyebrow.

"Oh whatever" She said finally and threw her arms in the air. "Just because I haven't seen all these stupid ass 'special infected' doesn't mean I haven't dealt with my own problems!" She was clearly exasperated.

"Yeah man" Ellis started, "Leave 'er alone…" He said and stood between the two.

Nick put his hands out, palms facing Ellis, "Alright whatever, you better hope you don't run into the other ones, those guys are a bunch of bitches." He warned though it only made Infinity squirm.

Then, just as Coach was about to scold Nick the shaking started up again, "I think he heard us…" Rochelle whispered; her eyes wide.

"What do we do?" Infinity asked, unaware of just how much trouble this tank would be causing.

"Just get ready," she instructed with a reassuring smile. "Nick you got the Molotov?" She called and looked over at him just as he pulled out a lighter and readied himself to light it and throw it at the giant mass that was heading straight for them.

"Where's it comin' from?" Coach said and spun around in semi circles to try and find which direction the tank would be emerging from. The moment those words left his lips a large cement barricade came hurtling at them from above, from over the building in front of them.

"In coming!" Rochelle cried and everyone dove out of the way the best they could but when it shattered it flew in all directions, this they couldn't dodge.

**X.x.X.x**

When Infinity hit the ground she heard something pop and a sharp pain shoot into her chest and down her left arm. She laid there on the ground for a moment trying to sort out in her head whether she was okay or not. She sat up and looked around for her friends, Coach was already standing though he head a steady stream of blood flowing from the top of his bald head. He ran over to Ellis who was groaning and holding his forearm close to his chest, but otherwise okay.

She almost sighed in relief when she realized she hadn't seen Rochelle or Nick. A moment later she almost wished she hadn't, Nick was lying under a chunk of the blockade that had come out of the sky and so abruptly tore them all apart, his lower half, from the waist down was completely hidden by the cement blanket he was under. Rochelle was already at his side and trying to push the cement piece off of him.

Nick cried out in pain from Rochelle's attempts at to free him and everyone ran to help. Even as they stopped to fix the tragedy unfolding before them, time did not stop and the culprit to the madness was growing ever closer. "God Damnit" He shouted through gritted teeth.

Infinity winced in sympathy, though not knowing what to do she allowed the other three to push the block off as she played with her limp arm. Suddenly a car, that wasn't in sight before, came tumbling out from the next street over, the alarm blaring as it crumpled to a stop a few yards away from them. Stuck on the corner of a building it, thankfully, came to closer to the already banged up group.

Afraid of what was coming she ran back to the others who were still struggling to get the block off of Nick. "The Molotov Nick, where is it?" She asked hurriedly.

"I'm," He grunted and bit down on his lip from crying out when they managed to get the block up a small bit only to re-drop it back onto the lower half of his body. Again she winced for him but knelt down next to his head, "kind of busy" He finally finished.

"Nick" She started and pulled his head into her lap to offer comfort. "That tank is still coming, if we needed that molotov before we need it even more now." She said quietly, stroking his hair back as she did.

He looked up at her with a pathetic look, "I dropped it, I think it rolled down the storm drain" He nodded in the direction he thought it went and she felt her heart drop to her stomach, _we are so fucked._ She thought to herself.

Instead of yelling, which was her initial reaction that came to mind, she nodded. "Okay, alright…" She began to look around for anything that could slow the tank down. "Okay… alright" she continued but stopped when Nick cried out, "Pull him!" Coach shouted, the three of them had gotten the block up. Nick grabbed her limp arm and her good arm instantaneously and she cried out in pain as well but stood and quickly ripped him out of the cement chunk's range.

She fell backwards, from the momentum of the pull, and landed on her back, her head colliding with the pavement. She heard a crack before blacking out.

**X.x.X.x**

Nick looked up a bit, Infinity had fallen a few feet away from him; his head was between her feet. He heard Rochelle shouting and then felt her hands on his chest, "Nick are you alright?" He nodded a bit, "She ain't movin' Rochelle" He said with squinted eyes.

She looked towards the new girl with a frown, "Alright, we got to get out of here though." She said and watched as Coach went over to pick up Infinity, holding her bridal style. Ellis came over to Nick's other side, "Hey buddy, let's get you up." He said and grabbed one of Nick's arms, Rochelle grabbed the other and they both wrapped his arms around their shoulders.

**X.x.X.x**

"Can you walk?" Rochelle asked and he nodded, "C'mon" She urged and the banged up group headed in the other direction the tank was coming from, only when they were half way back the way they came did the tank come around the corner. Pink and covered in what they figured was actual sweat, the 8 ton abomination came charging behind them.

"Shit" Rochelle breathed, in response the tank roared loudly. "Shit shit shit!" She cried and tried to walk faster with the other two men, who were linked, tried to keep up, Coach close behind them.

"In here!" She ordered and ushered them into an alley way, they heard a unified moaning sound. "We gotta horde coming" She announced, the car alarm was attracting other infected, soon they were going to have a horde, special infected, and a tank on them and with two incapacitated team members there was no way they would walk away.

She could see the end of the alley way, however just as she began to have hope of a clean escape a few zombies came running around the corner and poured into the alleyway. Ellis and Rochelle both dropped Nick so he was sitting on the ground and pulled out their weapons and began to fire at the zombies running at them.

Nick figured there was nothing wrong with his arms so he did the same as the other two, firing his weapon between the two other people. Coach set Infinity down, propping her up against the slender, alley way wall; careful of her head. The abomination had caught up and was frantically trying to fit through the narrow, alleyway entrance. He was as tall as he was broad and his wide shoulders would not allow the monster to fit.

With a small smirk Coach began to fire his M16 at the pink mass that was stuck in front of him.

Despite being able to cop out the tank the other three were having a hard to keeping up with the horde that was pouring down the alleyway. Whenever one of the men would call out that they were reloading, she had this unrequited fear she would run out at the same time and they would be left helpless to the zombies attacks.

To Rochelle, this was a fight they were not going to win.


	2. Chapter 2

**LEFT4DEAD**

Ellis looked around when there was a short break in the horde he was fighting off, as Nick and Coach handled the Tank as best they could as it continued to torture Rochelle.

He couldn't find Infinity anywhere. "Infinity?" He called out. A zombie grabbed his shoulder from behind and pulled at him but he was not in the mood, he whipped around and shoved it back shooting it in the chest as it tried to find its footing. He turned back around and scanned for her.

"Infinity!" He yelled as loud as he could. He cut a path out of the large group of zombies with his AK-47 trying to get a clear look around him. What he saw made his heart jump into his throat.

Down the road there was a rather large group of zombies huddling around and smacking at something, he prayed it was Infinity as he cut through the zombies to get to her.

As he drew close he could see that it was in fact her, her dark red blood was able to be seen pooling around the feet of her assaliants.

"Hey!" He screamed at the infected to get their attention, as some of them turned he lit a pipe bomb and threw it away from Infinity's body and himself. The zombies all ran for the bomb and he ran for her. She was unconscious and completely limp. He scooped her up bridal style and ignored the blood that was seeping into his clothes as he ran back towards the others and the safehouse.

Rochelle was up and about cursing about how pissy Tanks are, while Coach tended to her wounds inflicted by the Tank, and Nick was brushing at his suit, trying to get the blood and grey matter out of the white fabric.

Ellis ran into the room and laid her down on the table in the middle of the room. Nick's head shot up and took in the scene. They all moved in to help, Rochelle brought some towels and water bottles while Coach brought one of the medkits.

"What happened?" Nick asked, pulling out some Gauze and getting to work on the wounded girl.

"No idea. Ah just know that when Ah found her she was being pummeled by a group of zombies." Ellis explained as he started wiping blood off of her face and neck, looking for where the blood was emanating from.

"She looks bad…." Coach muttered under his breath as he observed, waiting to be asked for help or to do something.

"She'll be fine." Ellis said determined to save the girl he had only just met. "Right?" He looked at Nick who looked back with sad eyes.

"Not sure Overalls."

Ellis sighed. "Go git patched up. Ah'll finish with her wounds."

Nick nodded and got up and went over to where most of the medical kits were.

Rochelle stayed with Ellis as he finished as Coach and Nick tended to their own needs.

By the time the two of them were finished Infinity was covered in bandages. Most of her wounds were internal and most of the external looked older, like they were there before and only reopened from the beating she took. The biggest problem she was going to have was her left leg, there was a large gash starting at the top of the knee going down to the middle of her shin.

Ellis sighed and brushed a stray piece of hair out of her face and scooped her back up and laid her on a cot that was against the far wall. He covered her with a blanket and then sat down next to the bed, waiting for her to wake.

**Left4Dead**

Infinity woke up the next morning, and moaned. She did not want to move. Her whole body was hurting and stiff. "Ow." She kept her eyes closed, and did a mental check on her body, making sure she could still move.

"Infinity!" Ellis popped up next to her bed. "You're awake! You're alive. Thank God."

Infinity's eyes shot open in surprise. "Ellis! God, I just woke up! Give me a minute okay?"

"Kay."

She chuckled lightly. After a few minutes of silence she said, "Okay, Ellis. You can talk now." It was obviously killing him to be silent.

"Ah… er… we were so worried about you! Nick kept saying you weren't gonna make it through the night. Ah said he was wrong… he owes me a beer when we get outta here."

She laughed.

He smiled. A genuine, adorable, amazing, heartwarming smile. She smiled, she liked that smile, it wasn't a masked smile that most people wore it was… genuine.

"I love your smile." She admitted without thinking.

He kept smiling, "Well thanks."

As she went to sit up she winced and fell back down into the pillow.

"Holy shit." She moaned and wrapped her bandaged arms around her bandaged chest.

"Did Ah mention it was assumed you weren't going ta make it through the night? You were pretty jacked up Infinity." Ellis said sadly.

"No shit…. Alright help me up." She held up her hands to him as he stood up.

She braced for Ellis's assistance, she knew it was gonna hurt like hell, but she had to get moving and used to it if she was going to keep moving forward with the rest of them.

"Ready?" He asked her taking her offered hands.

She nodded and bated her breath. Her whole body erupted in pain; she let out a breath and bit her lip. Once she was sitting on the edge of the bed they both stopped.

"Take a breather." He knelt down in front of her.

"Kay." She breathed in deep long breaths. "My lungs hurt." She complained.

"Maybe we should…."

"No no, I have to do this." She watched as he was about to comply but then stopped.

"No." he said.

"What?" She hissed, not so much in anger but in pain.

"No. You need ta rest."

"The hell I do. Ellis I have to get used to this stuff. We got to keep moving and if I'm constantly limping around I'll slow you all down… or I'll do something stupid and get someone killed. I have to get going. I have to stand and learn to walk with all this bandage and stuff."

"Infinity…"

"No. Please Ellis. Let me get up."

"Alright. Fine." Ellis stood up and held out both of his hands for her to take. She grabbed hold of his hands and hoisted herself up and he pulled her up.

She gasped as pain shot up her leg. She about collapsed but Ellis held her up and she leaned against him.

Ellis held her up with one of his arms around her waist and one hand gripping her arm.

"What's wrong with my leg?" She asked and looked down at said leg, as if to make it stop hurting.

"You got a pretty bad gash running up your leg. You want to sit back down?" He offered, his face showing every ounce of concern.

"No. I can't. I have to get used to this." She said determined, her heavy breathing making ellis second guess his decision to let her do this so fast.

"Alright." He sighed.

As they worked on her walking and standing the others were finally starting to wake up.

By the time they were all ready to get moving again she was walking without help. She had a pretty bad limp, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

"So what kind of name is Infinity?"

"Well Nick… it's called a nickname."

"So Infinity is short for?"

"It's not short for anything, stupid. My dad called me it when I got my tattoo. It was just a joke. But it kinda stuck. It was that or Sargeant Sarcasim." She laughed lightly.

"So then what's your real name?" Rochelle asked curiously as she checked her gun.

Infinity laughed again, and holstered her double pistols. "My name is Marie."

"Yep, Infinity is better." Nick said and nodded quickly a smirk evident on his face.

"You're an ass you know that?" She looked at him.

"And proud of it."

"Yeah I bet you are."

"Okay children… that's enough." Coach said, he sounded irritated but it was said lightheartedly.

Ellis listened as they all talked back and forth. Smiled or laughed here and there but his mind was fully on Infinity. How was she holding up? She has a father. Is he alive? Does she have more family? How's her leg? A billion questions ran through his mind.

"Yo Eeellis!" Rochelle yelled and waved her hand in front of his face.

"Huh?"

"Are. You." She pointed at him. "Ready. To. Go?"

"Yeah." He nodded absent mindedly.

"Great. Now lets GO!"

"Okay."


	3. Chapter 3

"How's your leg?" Infinity looked at Ellis, that was the fifth time he asked that.

"It's fine Ellis. Thank you."

"Okay."

They turned around the corner she prayed over and over again that there wouldn't be another horde of zombies. And certainly not another Spitter or Charger. After the last 4 hordes she was not in the mood for ANYTHING anymore. She hadn't been touched by the specials, but Nick and Ellis had. Nick had received a face full of Spitter Acid, and poor Ellis had been near beaten to a pulp. She was soooo done with zombies.

Not a zombie in sight. _Yes! _They walked down the street, every other building was on fire. Places in the road had oil spill fires going as well. Basically there was fire everywhere.

"Hey did Ah ever tell you the time where ma buddy Keith and Ah made fireworks? I didn't know shit about chemistry but Keith figured that gasoline burns right? Heh, third degree burns over 95% of his body…"

"Ellis now is not the best time."

"Aw Coach c'mon. Let 'em tell the story I wanna hear it. It'll ease the tension… you know? Besides I could use a good laugh right about now."

"Infinity. Laughing is not the best thing to do in a zombie infested area. It draws attention."

"Yah well… Your… FACE draws attention."

"That's the best comeback you've got?"

"Look, I'm tired. And I'm sweaty, and my leg hurts like hell. Get over it. Just be glad I don't… um… That I don't…."

"Just give it up."

"Fine. But just you wait. I'll do something…. You'll regret messing with me. You know those zombies we just slaughtered? Yah… that's right. Keep that in mind." She touched the side of her head to imply mind. He just rolled his eyes.

"You roll your eyes now… but I know that deep down… deep DEEP down. YOU, sir cranky pants, are afraid."

"Whatever you say, Gimp."

"Ouch."

Left4Dead

Ellis watched as Infinity looked at him for the 10 time in 5 minutes. They had come across 10 hordes, complete with 3 Chargers, 2 Jockeys, 2 Hunters, 3 boomers, and a Witch. He was finished. He could stand it anymore. They hadn't even found a safe room yet.

Infinity looked at him again. "What? Do Ah have something on ma face or something?" He asked.

"Yah, but that's not why I'm looking at ya."

"Why then?"

"I'm worried about you. You look like shit."

"Thanks Infinity. You look beautiful."

"I'm not kidding Ellis. Let me have a look at you."

He winced as she touched his forehead, he guess there was something there. As she went and took care of the major wounds and put some anesthetics on the smaller ones the others took the opportunity to take care of their wounds too. With one person always on watch.

Once everyone was healed they heard something none of them wanted to hear. Wailing.

"Shit." Nick mumbled

"You can say that again."

"Shit."

"Uh huh. Okay, we keep moving. Lights off. If we see her we find away around. None of us can physically afford getting mauled by a Witch right now." Rochelle reasoned.

"Sounds fine to me." Coach sighed.

Ellis reached and turned off his flashlight. Everyone else followed and kept walking forward. The crying and wailing got louder.

He stumbled and started to fall but two hands caught hold of him, both belonging to the beauty standing beside him, Infinity.

"You're really looking bad Ellis."

"Thanks."

"Here." Infinity lifted his right arm over her shoulders and wrapped her left arm around his waist for support.

"Infinity… your leg."

"It's fine. You're the one who can barely stand."

"Great Ah'm being shown up by a girl. Nick will never let me live this down."

"Ellis, forget Nick. For all we know your leg could be in worse shape. I was hit with a Smoker, you were pummeled by a Charger. I believe there is a large difference when it comes to the pummeling power."

"Yah but…"

"No buts. My leg isn't that bad anymore. The meds kicked in… I'm fine." He voice held a firmness that told him there was no arguing.

"Fine."

As the two of them hobbled to keep up with the rest of the group they both kept a pistol in their free hands just to be safe. They were in the middle now and Rochelle brought up the back.

"Infinity tha…"

"Sshh, Witch is right ahead of us…. Oh that's bull…" Nick started.

"Shit." Coach

"Exactly." Nick finished.

There was more than one Witch and what was worse; they were sitting in front of the safe room.

"Holy shit Nick. Have you ever seen so many Witches? Damn there's like 4!" Ellis exclaimed.

"Dude, I'm going to be crying soon. And I'll cry louder than all of them at once." Infinity sighed.

Ellis looked at Infinity and smiled.

"So pretty much, the plan to go around the Witch…" Rochelle started.

"Witches." Coach corrected.

"Right. Witches. Is out the window… because they decided to have their little pity party in front of where we need to be."

"Right." Nick affirmed.

"Damn." She concluded.

"Right." Nick agreed and folded his arms and started pacing.

Coach sat down on a crate and sighed, resting his head in his hands.

Infinity guided himself and her to some debris where he could sit. She lowered him down slowly and he sat down gratefully.

Ellis sighed and took off his hat and ran his fingers through his hair. Infinity sat down next to him and started rubbing small circles on his back.

"This just keeps getting harder and harder." He complained.

Left4Dead

Infinity took in Ellis' face. He was giving up. She could see it in his eyes. He was defeated. His frown saddened her greatly. To see such a happy man be brought down so low that he can't even crack a single joke was depressing. She looked around at the others. They all held the same expression as Ellis; defeated and done.

"Ellis, honey, don't give up. All of you. We can't give up! We've come way too far, survived too much to just stop here."

"There's nothing else to do. We're done. There are four Witches there Infinity, taking on just one almost kills us on its own. Four would be suicide." Ellis sighed. 

"Oh and quitting isn't?"

"Infinity…"

"Ellis please don't quit. I know it's hard. But we can't quit. Ellis if you quit then we all do. If someone as strong as you says he's done then what do any of us have?" She cupped his face in her hands and turned his head so that he was looking at her.

"Ellis, I can't do this without you. Please don't say that it's over."

Infinity searched his face and looked into his eyes. For a smirk… or some sort of life to spring into his eyes.

Ellis looked down.

"Ellis please." If Ellis said it could be done, if he kept fighting, kept going, so would everyone else. This young man was keeping these people sane, but continuing to talk and making them talk. So they didn't forget who they were. If the same person who was keeping them going mentally gave up, so would they.

She kept searching his face for anything.

"Ah just don't know what ta do anymore." His voice was gruff with emotion.

She stroked his cheek with her thumb. "Then we wing it. We can't just stop. Even if it seems nothing will work we try anything. It's better to have tried then to just quit and wait for death."

He looked at her, she held his gaze, both of her hands cupping his face. "Please don't give up."

"Okay." He whispered. "I won't give up. Let's kill some Witches." He said louder.

Infinity smiled brightly, and looked at the others. Coach was still sitting on the crate, Nick had settle on sitting on the floor and leaning his back up against the wall his head leaned back, and Rochelle had settled down next to Nick and was resting her head on his shoulder.

"Infinity?"

"Yah?"

"Thanks."

She smiled and stood up, he watched her stand and she bent down and kissing him on the forehead. "Like I said Ellis, I need you."

She smirked when he blushed slightly and gave a lopsided grin. He put his hat back on and she offered him a hand up, he took it gratefully as she pulled him up to a standing position.

Left4Dead

"Guys. We can't give up."

"Ellis sweety, there is nothing left to do. We can't just take on FOUR Witches."

"Why not?"

"You are mentally ill Overalls."

"Hey Ah'm not the one who has more ex wives than there are zombies in this city."

"Just shut up."

"Okay look. What if we just blow them away? Throw some gas cans down there; shoot them and let those Witches burn to death…. burn to second death."

"They'd startle before we even get a shot. They'll come up here and rip us to shreds before we could even say "Aw shit."!" Coach exclaimed.

Ellis looked at Infinity. "That's all I got Darlin'."

"It's the only plan we got guys. Unless you all just want to sit here and wait to be found and THEN die. We have to at least try, maybe we succeed. Then we are one step closer to rescue, we die? Well we are dead anyways if we stay up here and wait for death to find us, instead of vice versa." Infinity tried.

Rochelle lifted her head from Nick's shoulder. "They're right Nick… we didn't come this far just to die quitters."

"Alright fine, let's find some gas cans and blow these bitches away."

"I think I saw a gas station down the road." Coach stood and pointed out.

"Great. Fantastic. Let's get to it then." Infinity was practically jumping with joy, Ellis couldn't help but smile. Infinity had gotten he team to keep moving, that was cause for celebration…. After they killed the Witches and got into the safe room.

Infinity and Coach went down to get the gas cans while Nick and Rochelle went to look for some grenades, Ellis stayed to keep watch. The Witches would get up and move now and again, but to his dismay none of them ever just up and left; they stayed in the same area. Much to his happiness none of them were aware of his presence. When Infinity and Coach came back with more than enough gas cans the three of them got them ready for their plan. Not five minutes later Nick and Rochelle returned.

Ellis was about to comment on their… messed up appearance but Infinity elbowed him. It was still funny to see Nick's perfect suit messed up with two extra buttons undone, and Rochelle's hair was all about instead of in the perfect ponytail. What was funny was that there was a lipstick smudge on Nicks jaw line. Ellis had to turn around and bite down on his hand to keep himself from laughing out loud.

After 15 minutes of preparation the plan was a go. Infinity and Coach were going to throw the cans of gasoline and at the same time Rochelle was to throw a couple grenades. While the cans were near the ground Nick and Ellis were to shoot them with incendiary rounds causing the cans to combust before they even hit the ground; raining fire on top of the Witches.

Not all plans go as a planned though. It all SEEMED to go as planned, the Witches weren't aware of any danger until after the grenades started to go off around them. Ellis whooped in victory, Nick and Rochelle game a quick victory kiss, and Coach sighed in relief. Infinity was jumping and dancing. Ellis smiled. They had fought and hadn't given up and they had won. They made their way down into the area where the Witches had been and now all lie dead.

Infinity left his side to go get some supplies ready ahead of time so she could get right to work on his leg. Nick and Rochelle were already in the safe room and Coach was helping him the rest of the way.

"Coach! I need some help moving this table!" Ellis heard Nick yell out the door.

Coach looked between the safe door and Ellis.

"Go. It's like 10 more steps for me. I'll be there in a second go ahead."

Coach nodded, and as soon as he disappeared into the safety of the room a loud shriek came from beside him.

"Damn it." He turned and as soon as he did he was tackeled to the ground.

Left4Dead

Infinity heard a loud sheirk from outside and instantly recognized it as a Witch, before she could even react a loud scream resounded in her ears. She ran to the door and stood in the doorway, what she saw scared her. Ellis was pinned by the Witch and was being stabbed continuously with its claws.

"No!" She screamed.

Coach and Nick came running out. She was completely unarmed but she ran up to the Witch and rammed her off of Ellis. Gun fire sounded behind her as she covered Ellis' body with her own. The Witch screamed but the scream ended suddenly, telling Infinity that the Witch was dead.

She sat up so she was kneeling next to Ellis. Ellis was moaning and screaming in pain.

"Ellis, honey, can you hear me?" She cried out desperately over his screams of pain. She stroked his hair away from his forehead and lowered her hands to his chest. The shirt was completely torn and was practically hanging off of him. She grabbed two handfulls of the shirt and ripped the rest of him to get a better look at his wounds. The blood was pulsing out of his many lacerations.

"Oh shit." Nick said from behind her.

"Oh god Ellis don't die." Infinity winced at her own lack of strength in her voice. Ellis couldn't die. Not Ellis. Her hands were shaking as she worked desperatly to stop or at lest slow the bleeding.

Rochelle came running out of the safe house, "We're set up. I found some surgical stuff in there… maybe we could…. Oh my god." Rochelle covered her mouth.

Left4Dead

The sight was gruesome. Nick watched as Rochelle came running to the rest of them, Infinity was working desperately to slow Ellis' bleeding. Ellis was covered in blood, an even pulse coming from his chest had produced too much he was bleeding out. The blood was everywhere, it covered his shirt, his neck and face, the ground around him, Infinity and her clothes, it was everywhere.

Nick heard moaning and a cough. They were attracting attention.

"Infinity we have to get him inside, for his sake and ours." Nick suggested.

Coach nodded his aggreement and the two of them walked towards Infinity and the young man. Infinity didn't respond but kept pressure, she didn't really say or do anything even after they had moved to carry him to the safe room. She just stayed in front of them and kept as much pressure as she could on his wounds.

Left4Dead


	4. Chapter 4

Once inside Coach and Nick carried to and laid him on a table. Rochelle moved to close and lock the door, and Infinity went to work on Ellis. His moans and cries were enough to break her heart.

"I can't do anything for him until this bleeding slows…" she mumbled.

"What do you want us to do." Rochelle whispered.

"Someone keep pressure on his chest. I'm gonna try to calm him down."

"I got it." Nick said. When Infinity removed her hands he replaced them and immediately put as much pressure as he could.

Infinity moved up to where Ellis' head was and placed her hands on both side of his face, and turned his face to hers.

"Ellis." He didn't respond. "Ellis look at me. Please Ellis."

"Infinity?" He croaked. His breathing was labored but he wasn't screaming or moaning anymore.

"Yah Baby it's me."

"I'm scared."

"Sshh. I know. But your going to be fine. Just keep breathing, and stay calm. You need to stay calm Ellis."

He looked at her and the look on his face and what she saw in his eyes broke her.

"I can't die here." He whispered.

"Sshh, don't talk like that." She stroked the side of his face. "You're going to be fine…"

Ellis pinched his eyes shut.

"Bleeding is slowing." Nick announced quietly. Infinity looked at him and nodded.

"You're going to be okay Ellis. I'm gonna take care of you." She kissed his forehead, "Just hold on okay?"

"Okay…" She removed her hands from his face and went back down to where his chest was.

"Give me some water." Coach handed a battle of water to her.

Left4Dead

Coach watched as Infinity went to work, pouring the water on Ellis' chest to clean it off so she could get a better look at the Witches stab wounds. Ellis hissed in pain but didn't scream or struggle to get her away. She put some gauze on his chest and with the help of Rochelle, Nick, and he managed to wrap his chest tightly. Ellis moaned in pain.

"Guys. I found some morphine over here!" Rochelle came walking up to the table with a shot.

"Thank God." Infinity took it greatly and injected Ellis with it in his leg.

Left4Dead

"Thanks Rochelle." Infinity looked at the woman.

"Of course."

Infinity went back up to where Ellis' head was and stroked his face.

"Infinity…" He mumbled.

"Sshh. You're going to be fine now. Just lie still."

As the morphine started to kick in Ellis grew quieter and quieter until he was completely still and in a drug induced sleep. She cleaned up the rest of the blood away from his face and off his arms and legs. His shirt was history so she looked around for another left behind shirt. She found a large black t-shirt and laid it down where she'd be able to find it later. She didn't want to put it on now, she still needed to access the wounds.

Infinity sighed. She was exhausted, physically, emotionally, and mentally. She closed her eyes and massaged her temples. _God… please don't let Ellis die. I need him. If he dies I don't know how well this group is gonna stay together. He holds us together. He's the glue of the group. So please Lord spare his life. We all need him. _She paused. _Aside from my own selfish desires… Lord he is so young. So full of life. To end it here. It seems so unfair. Please don't let him die…_

Her eyes flew open as she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Coach standing there, Nick beside him.

"Rochelle made a makeshift bed… would you like us to move him there?"

Infinity looked at Ellis, laying down on a table. She looked back to Coach and nodded.

Once Ellis was moved and settled on the bed that Rochelle had made up, the other four settled around the little space.

Since the bed was on the ground and more of a poofy mat, Infinity maneuvered herself and placed Ellis' head on her lap, provided a small pillow, while also keeping close tabs on him.

Nick and Rochelle were sitting next to each other again and leaning up against the wall.

Coach was sitting in front of the door, his back leaning up against it. He had his legs spread out in front of him.

"How did that Witch survive? I don't understand. They should have all been nothing but ashes." Rochelle said after awhile.

"I don't know. She was lucky I guess." Coach shrugged.

"Ellis wasn't." Nick stated.

Infinity unconsciously started to run her fingers through the young mans hair.

There was a deafening silence. It was strange compared to usually hearing the sounds of moans and yells, or other strange noises usually coming from the undead. She assumed that the fire in front of the safe house was keeping any hordes from coming this way, and any stragglers would probably miss-step and catch on fire.

Again Rochelle broke the strangely awkward silence.

"So did you have any family here?"

Infinity laughed airily. She had forgotten that the only person she had really talked to about her past was Ellis. He was the only one who had really wanted to talk. Rochelle and her had spoken for while, but nothing deep.

"Um, no actually. I'm from Ohio. Close up to Cleveland. That's where my family is. I came down here for medical school. Once signs of the infection started breaking out I tried to get the next plane. They wouldn't allow it."

"How long were you down here for?"

Ellis moaned and shifted in his sleep. She watched him for a second to make sure he was still alright before she continued.

"I was to be down here for 5 months. I had been here for four when I tried to get out. They just wouldn't let me bump up my schedule."

"Nobody really took it for a threat until half the city was infected. Why did you?" Nick asked. Actually interested in the story.

"Let's just say I had a belief in the possibility of it happening ever since I saw my first few zombie movies. When I started seeing signs… I tried to tell my superiors but they wouldn't have it. So I tried to get out while I still could. When I found I couldn't leave by train, plane, or boat I tried car." She laughed and shook her head. "It didn't work out."

"What happened?"

"Long story, so basically I went and bought a whole shit load of guns and ammo and prepared for the worst. I had already had experience with guns and shooting so I didn't really need to learn. So when the full outbreak occurred I got ready for battle. Broke into a surplus store and got dressed. Probably should have just waited to do the same for my guns but I got anxious. Then I met you guys after a while and, well, you know the rest."

"How old are you?"

She smiled and started running her fingers through Ellis' hair again. "I'm 21."

They all fell into silence again. Coach eventually fell asleep as did Rochelle, leaning her head against Nick's shoulder.

Infinity was starting to doze a little when Nick spoke up.

"That kid is damn stubborn and, surprisingly, tough as hell. He'll be alright. You patched him up real good. He's gonna be fine."

She smiled weakly, "I really hope so Nick. He can't die. He's too young to…. full of life. He can't die now. Not here, and not like this."

"He won't."

"Thanks."

"Just tellin' ya the facts. I got a question."

"Shoot."

"You said you had experience with guns…"

"My dad was a Marine. I had a friend who went rifling every other weekend, and I was always interested in the military and police force. So basically it's in my blood, it was around, and it was a hobby."

"Got it."

"How are you so good?"

"I'm a gambler. Sometimes I run into problems. It's a handy skill."

"Got it." She echoed.

"Well I'm gonna get some shut eye."

She nodded and Nick closed his eyes.

Left4Dead

Ellis woke to the sound of a gun being reloaded and cocked. He looked around to see Nick and Rochelle laughing and whispering. While Coach was reloading his shotgun. What worried him was that Infinity was nowhere to be seen. He went to sit up but was met with an intense burning in his chest. He let out a yelp as he fell back into his pillow. Which he found, when it grunted, wasn't a pillow.

He looked up to see Infinity blinking her eyes awake.

"Infinity?"

"Ellis!" All four people shouted in union.

"Dudes!" He replied with just as much enthusiasm.

"Infinity I can't breathe…" he croaked out when she started to squeeze him too hard.

"Sorry." She blushed. "I'm so glad you're okay! I thought…." She trailed off. He was certain he felt like he did when she was the one who was near death.

"You and Infinity, man…" Nick shook his head. "You guys gotta chill. Always getting beaten to a pulp."

"Got to keep things exciting." Ellis shrugged. He smiled as Infinity started to run her fingers through his hair.

"Don't make things exciting anymore." Coach spoke up. He had pulled out a bar of chocolate and started eating bits of it.

"Kill joys." Ellis mumbled. Infinity smiled.

"Don't worry honey, I'm sure things can still be exciting without you getting yourself killed." Rochelle winked.

"How are you feeling?" Infinity looked down at him.

Ellis looked down at his bandaged chest and then back up at her. "Like hell. How bad is it?"

"Terrible. She really jacked you up."

"How did she even survive?"

"Unlike you Overalls, she got lucky."

"Well good for her." Ellis replied sarcastically.

Left4Dead

Infinity smirked.

"Alright lemme take a look at your chest." Ellis nodded.

Infinity removed his head from her lap and laid it gently on the mat. She moved to his chest and removed the bandages and lifted the gauze.

His wounds weren't nearly as bad as last night. There was slow ooze coming from one in the lower left part of his abdomen but other than that there was no profuse bleeding.

"Alright. You're looking great Ellis." She smiled broadly. Ellis was going to be okay.

"I'm gonna re-bandage your chest, give you some painkillers and we'll go from there." She informed him.

"Great, can I take like a LOT of painkillers? I feel like I'm on fire."

"Death by overdose. Nice. You survive a Witch, but die by overdose on painkillers. That would look fantastic on the obituary." Nick laughed.

"Have you ever… never mind."

Infinity sent Nick a glare. He smirked and went back to Rochelle who was messing around with her gun, making sure it was ready for some serious zombie ass kicking.

Infinity finished taking care of Ellis and then helped him stand. He walked around a bit to try and get used to the new restrictions of his bandages, and then he also went to work with his weapons of choice.

Infinity was sitting on a table, _the same one Ellis almost died on, _she noted. She wasn't one for paranoia or supernatural so she didn't think it was bad luck or anything.

She smiled when she heard the usual banter of Nick and Ellis. Ellis had been trying to tell about Keith and him making bumper cars in his back yard. Coach was getting irritated and butted in and Rochelle came to sit next to her while she finished cleaning her shot gun.

"I have to say. I'm glad you're here." Rochelle said.

"Yah, I don't know how sane you would be if you had to go through all of this through the end with three bickering men." She laughed.

Rochelle giggled. "Yah. I'd probably come out more sane going by myself…" She paused. But I'm glad for other reasons."

Infinity listened.

"Nobody would have been able to save Ellis… he would have died without you."

Infinity stopped working on her gun and looked down.

"You're also the extra amount of "glue" we need. Without you guys talking about things that were before the infection…. We wouldn't talk. We would just sleep, shoot, and survive. We would lose…. our sanity… our humanity."

Infinity turned, and looked at her, and smiled. "I'm glad I'm here too."

Rochelle smiled.

"Ladies? It's time to go." Nick formally announced.

"Ready?" Rochelle smiled.

Infinity smirked. "Kill all sonsofbitches." She winked at Ellis and he smiled sheepishly.

They all stood in front of the door and Ellis turned around and kicked the door out.

There was a horde right outside their door, the team ran out pulling out their preferred weapons.

Left4Dead

Hm…. That was kinda weird. It was more about Infinity's past. But like I was reading the first three chapters over and I noticed a lot of things that I was supposed to elaborate on in the first place wasn't elaborated on. Follow? So I figured I would elaborate? Savvy?

Alright so that's chapter 4. Hoped you liked it. I LOVE reviews so if you like this story…. please Please PLEASE review.


	5. Chapter 5

Dangit! I read over the fourth chapter after I was done with it… but I also waited until AFTER it was posted… ELLIS DOESN'T HAVE HIS ACCENT! *breathing heavily* How could I forget to… ugh. So screw this man. I'll probably end up replacing it later. But right now I'm busy so I'm going to wait 'till after it's finished to fix any loose ends. So I hope you guys like it.

Disclaimer: Sorry I haven't been doing this but I did at the beginning…. (I hope) but I'll do it now. Just to be… sure… and… yah….. I'll…. Uh huh….. ON WITH THE SHOW!

Left4Dead

"Here, Ellis, take this." Nick walked up to Ellis and handed him an adrenaline shot.

"Thanks." Ellis took it and pumped it into his leg. His chest was KILLING him.

"How you holding up?" Infinity came up behind him and put her hand on his back.

"Ma chest hurts, ma leg hurts, ma hands hurt, and did Ah mention that ma chest hurts?" He complained. He knew he sounded like a bitchy little baby girl, but it REALLY hurt. He was glad he had gotten used to the bandages around his chest. It had been a pain in the ass to run around while being restricted. Now that he was used to it, it was easy as pie.

He felt her hand run up and down his back as they walked down the street together, the others up front. They had kind of had a silent agreement, the five of them, to have assigned positions. Coach and Nick took point, Rochelle in the middle, himself in the back, and Infinity went back and forth between back and middle.

"I know baby. The safe house should be nearby, you can rest up." She sympathized.

Ellis sighed and kept a sharp eye out and listened closely. He couldn't hear any moaning or special noises. That's what he hated most. He didn't like the total silence.

Left4Dead

Infinity listened to sounds of their footsteps echoing off the empty buildings as they walked down the street. Not hearing any zombie noises, special or common, was driving her mad. Even though she liked the breaks between hordes, she didn't like the silence. It was uncomfortable.

Leave it to Ellis to help out with that.

"Did Ah ever tell you about this guy, dude? He raced dirt tracks, not stock cars but open wheel cars, ya know? And he was racing once, and a goat…"

"Ellis, sweety, can this wait?"

"Okay! But there was a goat."

Infinity smiled at him and he flashed her a goofy grin.

In a lower voice he started, "So this goat jumped like right in front of his car. And he swerved off the track and…."

"Jockey!"

Both Infinity and Ellis snapped to attention looking for where the Jockey was coming from. As soon as they both saw it the Jockey jumped on Nick's back. The Jockey started forcing its victim down the road.

They chased after it, trying to get a good shot at it, as he and Nick ran down the road. The followed him around a corner not too far from the attack and they all froze.

"Hooooly shit." Ellis drawled.

"Oh this is not happening… this is nooot happening."

"Damnit!" Coach swung his axe at nothing in particular.

Infinity immediately ran off after Nick and the Jockey. If she didn't get to Nick soon, Nick would die. She ignored the thousands of moans from the dozens and dozens of zombies and shot at them with her duel pistols. She pulled out a pipe bomb when she came to an intersection and threw it in the opposite direction of the Jockey. "Pipe bomb!" she warned.

The horde of zombies all swarmed to it. The Jockey was almost completely alone now. She heard the others coming up behind her, shooting and bashing with their weapons at the zombies who had escaped the wrath of the bomb or her pistols.

Infinity kept running towards Nick, the Jockey pounding on his head. She watched in fear as her fell to his knees, at least 7 zombies coming in around him.

"No! Nick!" She screamed and ran faster.

Left4Dead

Ellis' heart was pounding. The adrenaline was still on high, the pain in his chest was nothing more than a dull nuisance now. Ellis felt something pulling at his leg, he looked down to see a zombie grabbing and dragging itself closer to him. He replaced his rifle with his shotgun and aimed at the zombies head and pulled the trigger.

He looked around; Coach and Rochelle were fighting off several zombies, Coach hacking at them with his axe and Rochelle shooting with her high powered rifle. He turned around looking for Nick and Infinity, when he found them it was quite the sight.

Nick was fighting, or at least trying to, the Jockey that was STILL on his back; while Infinity held the several zombies back from Nick.

Ellis looked back to Rochelle and Coach and made sure they were handling alright before he ran off towards Infinity and Nick. He didn't stop running until he rammed the Jockey full force off of Nicks back. He, again, aimed directly for the Jockeys head and pulled the trigger. He helped Nick up and kept fighting alongside Infinity until all of the zombies had fallen dead.

Coach and Rochelle ran up. Rochelle immediately went to Nick and gave him a light hug and then pulled out a medical kit and patched him up.

"That was…." Nick started.

"Retarded." Coach finished.

"Yah." Nick agreed.

"Okay so…."

"_Is somebody out there? Are there other survivors out there? Hello?"_ Everyone looked around for the cause of the loud voice, it was echoing all over the block so they couldn't make out where it was coming from originally.

"It sounds like it's coming from a speaker…" Ellis thought out loud.

"_Hello? I heard the gunfire. There has to be someone out there? I need help… please…"_

"Er…" Infinity started out quietly, "Where are you?" She shouted.

"Sshh! Infinity you'll attract attention!" Nick snapped.

"Oh right…" she feigned stupidity. "Cause shouting from a speaker phone isn't already attracting attention?" She shot back.

Nick looked down. "Whatever."

"Sir?" she yelled. "Where are you?"

"_I'm in the brown apartment building. There are stairs, it's the only building with the outdoor stair case!" _The voicespoke.

The team looked around.

"There!" The all turned to see Rochelle pointing to the "brown apartment building with stairs".

They made their way there, being cautious of any "curious" groups of zombies. At the top of the stairs was a door. The landing wasn't big enough for all of them, only was able to fit 2; Rochelle and Infinity. Behind Infinity was Ellis then it was Nick, followed by Coach at the end of the line.

Rochelle knocked on the door. "Hello?"

"_Oh thank God!"_

"What do you need?"

"_I need you to do me a favor. Are there more of you?"_

"There are five of us." replied.

"_Great! Fantastic, okay, my daughter… she was at school when the outbreak happened. I tried to get to her, but was swarmed. I ran up here to hide. I can't get back out without getting hurt. I just want my daughter here with me. Please can you get my daughter?"_

"We don't have time for this… or the ammo." Nick said.

"He just wants his daughter." Infinity responded quietly.

"Does he even have proper food or anything to support either one of them?" Coach voiced.

Ellis looked between them all. "Sir. Do you have proper food rations to even feed you two?"

"_Yah. There was already plenty of food from whoever lived here before. And I had stuff that I brought with me. I even have ammo!" _There was a pause. _"Look. If you get my daughter back… I'll…. well I'll give you the ammo. As much of it as I can. Please just bring my daughter back."_

"We aren't your errand boys." Nick shouted to the man so he could here. "Besides," he continued before anyone could shut him up. "how do you even know she's still at the school let alone alive?"

Ellis glared at him. "What?" Nick asked feigning innocence.

Ellis had to will himself not to knock his lights out. Instead he spoke up, "Where is the school?"

"_Not far from here. It's only a block or two away. Take Evian down to Lauren Lane, turn left there. The school will be on your right. Please get my little girl back. Her name is Marie."_

"We'll get her back Mister…." Ellis trailed off.

"_Ruiz."_

"Mr. Ruiz we'll find your daughter."

"_Thank you."_

Left4Dead

Infinity walked down the stairs with the rest of her friends. Once back on the street they went down Evian.

"You okay?" Infinity turned towards the voice.

"Um, yeah, I'm fine Rochelle. Thanks."

"We'll find her."

"I know. I'm just not sure HOW we will find her."

Rochelle paused at that. She looked ahead both of them walking in silence.

"There's Lauren." Coach announced.

Infinity fell back in step with Ellis. As they turned onto the street.

"How are you feeling?"

"Adrenaline wore off, everything is killing me again."

"When we get to the school we'll look for the nurse's station. Find some painkillers for ya."

Ellis nodded and they fell silent again.

Infinity was grateful for once for the silence. She wasn't in the mood for zombies and she wasn't in the mood to talk.

"Are you alright Infinity?"

"I'm fine."

"Ah just wanted ta make sure because of the way we met… and the girls name and stuff…." He said quietly.

"The girls name doesn't make it anymore emotional for me Ellis."

"Well Ah just didn't know…"

"Thanks for asking."

"Infinity…"

"Not now Ellis."

"Okay."

Infinity felt bad, but she just wasn't in the mood. She wanted to help this guy find his daughter but she didn't really WANT to go into a school. She didn't want to find a dead girl, or another infected girl. She couldn't handle that. Infinity looked at Ellis. He looked sad. She knew he was just trying to help, but right now…. It just wasn't helpful.


	6. Chapter 6

Thanks everyone SO much for the story alerts and favorites. I especially appreciate the reviews. It really makes my day! Thank you guys!

I don't own this game, its characters… or it's infected.

Left4Dead

Ellis watched Infinity. She looked back at him often opening and closing her mouth as if she wanted to say something but wasn't sure. He could tell she was upset. She was sensitive to children; he could imagine that having to kill a 7 year old girl would cause that to escalate.

When Ruiz said his daughters name was Marie, he immediately froze. To them Infinity was Infinity, but she is Marie; to herself, to her family, to her friends back home.

His thoughts were interrupted when her voice resounded in the night air.

"That must be the school."

Ellis looked at the sign in the middle of the courtyard. "Lawrence school"

There was nothing outside the school, which surprised him but he didn't say anything.

"First we have to fetch some dude his freaking Cola… now we are getting another dudes daughter. Just because we are well armed and surviving doesn't mean we have all the time in the world."

"Nick?"

"Yeah?"

"Shuddup."

Coach started walking down the walkway to the school.

The others started following but when Infinity didn't take a single step he turned to her.

"Infinity?"

"I can't go in there Ellis."

"Why?"

"Ellis, schools are for kids. There were kids in the school during the lockdown. There are kids INSIDE of that school Ellis. I can't go in there."

"Infinity, that girl…. Marie needs our help. Ah know that there are others going ta be in there but you have ta do it… for her sake. Those kids are a threat now…. IF they are infected. There could be other children in there with Marie. Other girls and boys, alive and trapped in there. We can save them. Infinity we need your help. Please."

Infinity's eyes started to tear up. "Okay… I'll go in." She sighed sadly, "Let's go."

Ellis nodded and gave her a small smile. She started walking towards the building, Ellis walked in step with her and rolled his eyes when he saw Nick ranting and raving, no doubt about them not being right behind them.

"What the hell? You guys are dragging me along and YOU guys are the ones to be hesitating?"

"Nick you don't know what you're talking about. So just shut up." Ellis ground out.

"Oh, look who got a backbone." Nick jested.

"Nick shut the HELL up!" He spat. He was THIS close to tearing that man to shreds.

Left4Dead

Infinity looked between the two men. Seeing the both of them starting to boil was going to lead to some major problems. Both of them had strong personalities, both of them polar opposites.

"Guys!" Infinity stepped in, putting her left hand on Ellis' chest to keep him from attacking and tearing Nick to shreds.

"Calm down. We don't need this right now. Not to mention we CAN'T afford it."

Nick didn't seem to be cooling down as Ellis was. So Infinity shot Rochelle a desperate look. Rochelle caught it and walked over to Nick; she too placing her hand on his chest.

"Nick, sweety, Infinity is right. Let's just drop it and get the girl and get out."

"Fine." He hissed.

Infinity stopped looking at Nick and looked up at Ellis. As the other went back inside she stayed out with him.

"Are you okay?"

"Ah'm fine." He turned and tried to leave but she grabbed his arm.

"Hey."

"What?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nick is wrong. This city is wrong. Ma chest hurts, so THAT'S wrong. EVERYTHING is wrong."

She released his arm and cupped his face with that hand.

"Nick is… well he's Nick. Forget about him. This city…. we'll be out soon. I'll take a look at your chest…. And… things will be alright."

Ellis leaned into her touch. "Are you okay?" He asked quietly.

"The sooner we get the girl and to her father… I will be." He nodded.

"C'mon let's go… don't wanna get left behind." She offered him a half smile and removed her hand and started to walk in.

They met up with the others in the main foyer.

"Should we split up? All take different wings? We could meet back here."

"Yah but how will we even know when we should meet back. If one group finds the kid the rest of us won't know and we'll keep looking around until who knows when."

"Nick, your pessimistic view on everything is really starting to piss me off." Ellis huffed.

"It's not being pessimistic, kid. It's being realistic."

"Eff you."

"Guys! Not know. Okay?" Infinity said exasperated.

Neither one of them spoke. "Look we'll split up into… two groups."

"Why not three? Coach is a big guy… I don't think a couple of loony kids are gonna hurt him too bad."

"Ever heard of teachers Nick? They are normally with the kids in the school."

"You know what I don't care. Split us up however you like!" Nick threw his hands up in the air.

"Well since you're so tough why don't YOU go alone?" Ellis suggested hatefully.

"Guys!" Rochelle shouted her hand resting on her forehead implying a oncoming headache. "Ellis and Infinity take the upstairs. Coach you go left and Nick and I will go right. Okay? There's our groups. Take care of yourselves. Meet back here. And if you find the girl…. Shout that you got here and we'll come." Without another word Rochelle grabbed Nicks arm and pulled him towards the right end of the hallway.

Coach looked at her and Ellis and shrugged and left towards the left end of the hallway. Infinity looked at Ellis and huffed and started up the stairs.

Left4Dead

Ellis followed Infinity up the stairs, slowly. His leg was killing him, his chest was killing him… Infinity's gloomy look on her face and silence was killing him. And from her limp he was guessing that HER leg was killing her.

"You're limping Infinity."

"I know. My leg is starting to bother me. How is yours?"

"Greeeat."

"Fantastic."

"Are we okay?"

Infinity reached the top of the stairs and turned around to look at down at him. "Yes, we're fine. Why would you ask that?"

"Don't read into it or anything. Ah'm just wonderin'. You seem quiet and tense."

"I'm pissed. And I'm tired. My leg hurts. I'm tired. I want out of this city. But first I want out of this school."

As Ellis reached the top as well her gaze followed him. They both stood at the top of the stairs and stared at each other. He reached forward and rested his hands on her shoulders.

"It'll all be over soon. We'll get the girl get her to her father and then be on our way and sleep for days."

"Promise?" She asked timidly.

He flashed her his special genuine smile, "Promise."

"Okay." She whispered.

Ellis leaned forward and kissed her gently on the forehead. "C'mon. Let's go find Marie."

Infinity nodded and started towards a door.

Left4Dead

Several small hordes of small children later, Infinity didn't think she could take it any longer. She had shot and killed over 4 dozen children, she didn't even know if any of them was even Marie or not. The first small girl they had come across was a lot like the girl she had found all those days ago. Huddled in the corner moving back and forth; only to reveal a bloody mess of another child's body, rather than just the arm. _All those days ago…_ she thought. Had it really been that long? She thought back, _Oh my god. It's been 5 days since I met these people. _

She was brought out of her stupor when she heard Ellis say something about a locked room, locked from the inside.

"A group of survivor's maybe?" Infinity asked and walked up to the door beside Ellis.

"Let's find out." Ellis raised his hand and knocked on the door.

Left4Dead

Woooow SHORT chapter! Sorry people. I just have a thing for cliff hangerrrs. Don't eat me.

The next chapter will be up soon! Two chapters in one day though! You gotta be happy with that. Thank God for summer break huh? Alright hope this one was good! Keep reviewing! Talk to you soon!


	7. Chapter 7

"Hello? Is anyone in there?" Ellis asked through the door.

"_Hello?"_

"Yes! Hi. Ma name is Ellis. Ah have a…. er…. friend here with me. We're here ta help."

"_Are you sick…?"_

"No, no honey we aren't sick. We're immune to the infection." Infinity spoke up.

"Could you let us it? We are going ta take you somewhere safe."

"_I can't open the door. There are others out there. All sick. I can't let them in."_

"They're gone. They're… Mmmm…. Well they're dead. You don't have ta worry about them anymore. We'll keep you safe."

"Promise?"

He looked to Infinity, "Ah promise."

Ellis and Infinity listened as the sound of a bolt clanked away, after that came several scrapping sounds and falling and grunts.

The door opened, revealing a small girl looking to be 9 or 10, her uniform was dirty and torn, and her hair was messy barely in the ponytail that was obviously her hair style. Behind her were 3 other children; a small boy looking to be around the same age as the first girl whose uniform was just as torn, with a long tear going across the front of his shirt, his blond hair was long, dirty and very messy . Two young girls looking to be about 5 or 6 tops both had their hair done the same way; pigtails, they were both brunettes and looked reasonably clean.

"Hey there." Infinity greeted, flashing the children a sad but genuine smile.

"Hi, Ah'm Ellis, this is Infinity." He intruduced. Ellis looked around the door and saw what had made all the racket when the door was being opened. They had barricaded the door; there were desks and chairs and a small bookcase beside the door, all of which, he guessed, were once in front of the door.

The two small 6 six year olds both ran over to Infinity and clung to her legs.

Infinity giggled and picked up the girl who was clinging to her left leg.

"And what's your name?"

"Monica…" She said quietly and buried her head in Infinity's neck.

"That is such a pretty name." She smiled and then looked down to the girl holding onto her right leg. "What about your name?"

"Alexandria."

She smiled, "That's a pretty name too." She adjusted Monica on her hip, as to get a better grip on her and probably for a more comfortable position.

Infinity looked to the small boy, but before she could ask… "I'm Matt."

"It's very nice to meet you Matt."

He nodded.

Ellis decided it was time he spoke so they'd be warmed up to the both of them. "How about yours?" He knelt down in front of the eldest looking girl.

"Marie. My name is Marie."

Ellis shot a look at Infinity, he was certain his expression was near the same as his.

"What's your last name?"

Marie shifted under his gaze uncomfortably; they hadn't asked the others for last names, she was probably nervous.

"Ruiz…."

"Your dad is looking for you Marie." Infinity said quietly.

"Daddy? He's alive? Where is he? When did you see him? Can you take me to him?"

"Yes of course we can. That's why we're here."

"Can we go now?"

"Yep."

The six of them left the room in silence. Ellis taking the front of the line with Marie up in front holding his hand, Infinity brought up the rear with Monica still being held and Alexandria had managed to let go of her leg and settle for holding her hand. Matt was in the middle.

They made their way down the stairs back to the foyer. They hadn't run into any zombies, Ellis breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't want any kids seeing that, he couldn't stand it… he couldn't imagine how the children would feel. Especially since the kids knew them personally.

Nick, Rochelle, and Coach were all waiting in the foyer already.

"There they are." Coach said and pointed at them. From the lack of children with them Ellis concluded that this small group of children were all that survived.

"Where were you…. Oooh."

"We found Marie, with a couple others."

"Are they…"

"They're clean Nick."

Ellis introduced everyone. Monica and Alex kept with Infinity they didn't want anything to do with the others. Ellis silently wondered what it was about Infinity that had these kids trusting her so much so quickly.

"So you're Marie then? You mean a lot to your daddy." Rochelle smiled. "He'll be so glad to know you are safe."

Ellis looked to Coach he seemed more quiet than usual. He was standing in the doorway, that's when Ellis noticed the growing red spot on his shoulder.

"Coach you alright?"

"Yah, those kids are fast…."

"Want me ta take a look at it?"

"Nah I'm fine."

Ellis turned back to Nick who was shouting something about lack of ability to blah blah blah.

"What are ya yelling about now?"

"We can't just walk back with 4 kids. Zombies don't just hang around in one spot and wait for us to walk into them, they move around. We may not have had a problem on the way here but that doesn't mean we won't have a problem now. We have a hard time taking care of ourselves. Adding 4 kids into the mix isn't going to help in the least bit."

"What are you saying Nick?"

"I'm saying. We…. We need a car."

"Yah cus THOSE are easy to find; especially one that would carry 9 people!"

"You know what Ellis…."

Left4Dead

Ellis and Nick were going at it again…. She looked at the children and then back to the adults….

Her mouth snapped shut as the same words she was thinking came from somewhere next to her.

"Shut the hell up! You couple of annoying morons!" Infinity looked to see Coach looking royally pissed off.

Both Ellis and Nick were silent. Coach has shouted before, he's also sworn before, he's also yelled at them before. But Coach has never done all three of them at the same time before.

"Now! If you'll look around you… you'd see that there are 4 children present. You'd also know that there are still zombies around, we aren't zombie free here. Finally you'd be silent enough so I could tell you that there is an ambulance out there. I'm certain that that would be big enough for all of us to fit in."

Coach walked back over to the door and looked, supposedly, to the ambulance that was sitting outside.

Nick, Ellis, and Rochelle headed over. Infinity took the kids with her.

"Alright fine. There's our mode of transportation." Nick said, he walked outside towards it.

Once they were all at the ambulance Nick opened the driver's side door only to be tackled to the ground by the previous driver.

"God damn it!" He shouted and then raised his own pistol and shot him in the stomach. Nick flipped him off of himself and then shot him in the head.

To her surprise and horror the children didn't make a sound. They flinched but didn't scream. She was happy that she wouldn't have to try and console them but was horrified that because they've seen so much of stuff like this it hardly phases them anymore.

Nick looked through the rest of the vehicle and once it was confirmed that it was clear of any others the children all loaded in the back. Monica sitting on and curled in her lap while the other were piled around her. Alex was sitting right next to her gripping her arm while Matt sat on the other side holding her hand. Marie was not one for comfort. She didn't even try to sit next to her.

Infinity looked up to the front of the ambulance, "Ah couldn't find the keys on the dead dude or in the car. The keys aren't around." Ellis announced.

"Damn it." Nick swore, "Can you hotwire it?"

"Ah dunno. Probably." Ellis disappeared from her line of sight. She assumed he was looking under the console of the vehicle, attempting at a hotwire.

The back doors opened to reveal Rochelle. "It's looking pretty clear. No zombies." She smiled at the children.

"They really like you ya know." She turned and closed the double doors.

"I don't know why. I'm not complaining… I just don't know what I did." She sighed and looked down at the now sleeping Monica.

"I think it's the way you speak and carry yourself. It probably makes them feel safe."

"It's not fair these kids have to go through this…. You know? Monica and Alex are twin sisters. They are only 6. Matt is 8 years old. His sister died in front of him… she was taken by a teacher. And Marie… she doesn't say anything but the essential."

"They're gonna be…"

Suddenly the Ambulance roared to life. Followed, horrifically, by the sound of its sirens going off.

"What did you do Ellis?" Nick demanded from the passenger seat.

Monica jerked awake.

"I don't know. There could be a safty on this thing. So nobody would hotwire it and get away with it. Or the wires could be crossed or…."

"I don't care turn it off!" Nick and Ellis started to frantically look for the switch that turned the sirens off and on. Rochelle left her seat across from Infinity to help. She leaned over the small divider between the driver's area and the cab and started to look for the switch as well.

Suddenly the passenger door opened and Coach yelled for Nick to move over.

"There's a horde coming this way! Turn off the damn siren!"

"I can't!" Rochelle shouted. "It's not working." She was switching the siren switch back and forth but nothing was happening.

"Turn off the ambulance! Just turn it off." Nick yelled.

"No don't! Look!" Rochelle pointed to the passenger side of the vehicle. A large horde was turning the corner and coming this way.

"Step on it Overalls!"

Ellis jumped into the seat and closed the door.

"Hold on everyone!" Ellis put it in gear and slammed on the gas pedal. The Ambulance lurched forward and sped down Lauren Lane.

Infinity looked at the kids who were now looking to be on the verge of tears and we shaking violently.

"Ellis go freaking faster!" Rochelle screamed to the front. Rochelle had moved back into the back of the cab and was looking out the small back window. "They are catching up!"

"Something is wrong with it! It won't let me exceed 35!"

"Damn it Ellis!" Nick shouted.

"It's not my fault!"

Infinity looked at the children. "I'll be right back." She removed Monica from her lap and set her in between Matt and Alex.

She went and stood next to Rochelle and looked out the other small window.

"Rochelle get your gun ready." She said and then turned back to the kids. "I need you guys to sit down on the floor right there, okay?" She pointed to the spot where the floor and the wall divider met. "Keep your backs pressed up against there and don't move. Okay?"

The children nodded and all moved to sit where she had told them.

"I won't let anything happen to you." She promised. She turned back and pulled her shotgun off her back, checked it and cocked it.

Rochelle looked at her.

"What are you thinking."

"What do you think?" She put her hand on one of the handles. She was standing by the left door, Rochelle by the right.

"Aw hell Infinity. Are you sure?"

"Pretty darned."

"Alright." Rochelle grabbed hold of the right door handle. Rochelle opened her door and Infinity followed suit.

She aimed her shotgun with the closest zombie and pulled the trigger. Rochelle and her kept shooting at the zombies as they came closer and closer to the ambulance.

Over the sirens, wind, gun shots, moans, and screams Infinity thought she heard something about bowling from Ellis. She wasn't sure what he had meant so she turned her head to the front of the vehicle and as she was about to ask him to repeat what he had said she heard a thud followed by several more thuds on top of the roof.

She looked back to where the doors were opened when a body fell from the top of the ambulance and landed on a couple zombies causing several to stumble and fall.

"I warned you!" He shouted. It was then she understood he had said "Zombie Bowling."

She rolled her eyes and kept shooting.

"Yee Haw!" Ellis whooped. "Ah love zombie bowling!"

"Ellis! That was Evian! You missed our road!"

"What? Shit. Sorry, hold on!"

Suddenly the Ambulance made a sudden stop and a sharp 180 turn. The children all screamed and squealed as they were all tossed around the cab.

Once they were reasonably steady again she stood up and turned to where the children were supposed to be. She counted heads and sighed in relief when all children were accounted for. She turned back around and closed the doors.

"Ellis! A warning next time! The kids could have been hurt!"

He didn't respond but she didn't mind. He was busy driving a loud vehicle that attracted hordes of zombies after hordes of zombies. He was a LITTLE but distracted. She was just glad she wasn't up front.

"Turn left! Turn left!" She heard Coach yell.

"Alright alright!"

The ambulance turned sharply causing those in the back to tumble again.

"There's the building!"

Ellis pulled up to the building and skidded to a stop.

"We have a biiig problem you guys." Ellis breathed.

They all looked to the back to see the largest group of zombies any of them have ever seen.

"Shit."

"We can't fight all those!" Coach exclaimed.

"We could try to outrun them!" Ellis suggested.

"We don't have time for that right now… we'd never get up there fast enough. Even if we did how would we get back out?" Rochelle reasoned.

Left4Dead

They all sat in silence. None of them knowing what to do. The sirens were off, they had agreed to turn it off as to not bring even MORE attention to themselves. The only sounds that could be heard were those of the zombies and of the childrens whimpers and sniffles.

"We have to fight them. That's our only option."


	8. Chapter 8

"We have to fight them. That's our only option."

"We've never done that many at once! We'd never make it. We are all in desperate need of rest, food, water, and medical attention. Ellis is barely able to walk anymore, and neither is Infinity. I feel like complete and total shit… the only two people who could actually take on anything right now is Coach and you Rochelle. But with that many zombies… it would never work."

They all remained silent, all of them thinking on what Nick had said.

"How many pipe bombs do we have?"

"Well Ah found some earlier…. Before Nick was pounced on." They all had to think about that for a second. It seemed so long ago, it was funny that this was where it all started.

"How many is "some" Ellis?"

"Like… 6?"

"No shit! Okay… we can do this! I've got two…. Does any one else have some?" Infinity's plan seemed like it might work.

"I've only got one…" Coach mentioned.

"So we got 9…" Infinity stood, putting Monica back on the floor next to her sister, and went over to the back window and looked out.

"Pipe bombs attract dozens of zombies to even just one… since we have 9…. Combined with our average firepower…. Guys we can do this!"

Ellis pulled out his bag and handed two to Nick and two to Rochelle.

"Infinity…." Rochelle spoke up. Infinity turned and looked at her.

"Stay here with the kids. Nick, Ellis, Coach, and I can handle them on our own. We have the pipe bombs and stuff… but you gotta stay here and protect the kids. They all trust you the most, you can keep them safe AND calm."

Infinity looked to the boys all sitting up front, when they all nodded in agreement she said,

"Okay. Call if you need me though."

"Only if we're desperate." Coach said.

Infinity nodded.

The four left the vehicle into the mass of undead. As Infinity listened to the gun shots, and the warnings of a pipe bomb, the screams of fear or surprise she closed her eyes shut and prayed that they would make it out alive.

"Last pipe bomb!"

Infinity crossed her fingers, praying that this bomb would finish off the zombies that were trying to kill her friends. Monica was crying softly into her chest while the other just huddled around her, Marie included.

"You're going to be okay…" She assured them. "We…" Suddenly she heard Rochelle scream.

"Infinity! We're getting slaughtered! Help!"

"Rochelle…." She trailed off. She looked at the children clinging to her in fear. "I have to help them."

"No you can't!" Alex cried.

"Alexandria, she has to. Her friends said themselves they wouldn't call her unless it was absolutely necessary." Marie reasoned.

"I… WILL. Be. Back. I promise. Do not open this door. Do not come out. Do not even look out a window, until I come back. Do you understand?"

They all nodded.

"Words. I need words." She kissed the top of Monica's head.

"We won't leave, or look out the windows until you come back for us." Matt said.

Infinity looked to the others and they all repeated the same thing to her.

"Alright, I have to go but I will be back. I promise."

With that she lowered Monica to the ground with the others, grabbed her shot gun, and put her hand on the door handle. She looked back at the children one last time before she opened the door and flew out. She slammed the door shut, and got ready for battle. Rochelle looked like she was about to pass out, Nick and Ellis were both already on the ground being pummeled until death, and Coach was kicking zombie ass.

"Rochelle!" She shouted. The young women turned towards her as Infinity threw an adrenaline shot her way.

Rochelle caught it and immediately pumped it through her system.

Infinity turned back around towards where both Nick and Ellis laid. "Pipe bomb!" She warned.

She threw it down an empty road and prayed that would lure any remaining zombies away from Nick and Ellis. Over half of the zombies there total left for the bomb, leaving Nick and Ellis alone. She turned back to Rochelle who had fallen. She picked off the last remaining "sonsofbitches" that were still trying to beat Rochelle to her death and then went to Coach to help him.

She ran up and shot at any zombies that were lagging behind and screamed at the others, "Hey you bastards! Come and get it!" She threw another pipe bomb away from her and the others. As the bomb soared through the air and rolled on the ground all the remaining zombies ran after it, leaving Coach and Infinity to help their friends.

Infinity ran over to Ellis.

"Ellis, hon, wake up." She didn't have any medical supplies left, she couldn't properly help him right now.

She about smacked herself when she remembered they had come in a MEDICAL vehicle. Then she remembered what…. WHO was IN the vehicle. She turned around leaving Ellis where he was and opened the back doors.

"Hey kiddos. We're safe now. Marie? You ready to go be with your dad?"

Marie nodded vigorously.

"Good. Now hold on. My friends are pretty beat up. I'm gonna help them real quick kay?"

She grabbed the essential medical supplies and headed towards Rochelle and Coach were, both trying to revive their companions, Rochelle must not have been too bad.

"Hey! I got some medical supplies this should…" Infinity stopped dead in her tracks, her voice trailing off.

Rochelle and Coach stopped their work on the two's injuries, both of them alert and listening.

"Oh hell no." Coach said.

"Can we never get a break?" Rochelle whined.

"Ro, get the kids. Coach, grab Nick I'll help bring Ellis up. We need to get in that apartment room now!"

Rochelle immediately got up and went for the kids.

"C'mon sweeties. We gotta go now. Let's go meet Marie's dad, hm?" Infinity heard Rochelle talking to the kids.

Coach wrapped Nicks arm around his neck and then put his own arm around the injured mans waist for support and half dragged half carried Nick up to the flat.

Infinity did the same only with much less ease, Ellis was light but he wasn't that light. However the sound of a Tank rampaging, seemingly, towards them sped her pace up.

Once she reached the stairs she heard Rochelle banging on the door yelling for Ruiz to let them in.

"Mister Ruiz! We have your daughter! Please let us in! We have a Tank coming up on us! Let us in!" Rochelle tried banging on the door, and then tried to wriggle the door handle to open it.

The Tank was getting closer.

"RUIZ LET US IN!"

"Daddy let us in!" Marie yelled.

"Rochelle just blow the damn door!" Infinity screamed in panic. She didn't do it often, but there were children here and half of their usual group was unconscious.

Rochelle told Marie and the others to stand back and cover their ears as she pulled out her shot gun. Rochelle aimed the barrel at the door knob and pulled the trigger.

The rampaging Tank could be heard and sounded as if he was already here.

"Open the door Rochelle!" Rochelle kicked the door in and ushered the children in followed by Coach and Infinity carrying the two unconscious men. Rochelle followed up rear and closed the door.

"Help me barricade it shut!" Rochelle shouted as she started moving tables and chairs in front of the door. By the time the three of them, plus some help from the children, the door had tables and chairs all stacked in front of the door. For extra measure Infinity put a pop can on top of the large pile of furniture.

Infinity looked around. "Where's Marie?" She asked.

Rochelle looked up from her work on Nicks arm. "She came in! I watched her come in!" She said and jumped to her feet.

"Marie! Marie?" Infinity shouted through the apartment.

"Marie!" Rochelle echoed.

"Infinity! Help me! Daddy's hurt!" Marie's voice came from within the apartment.

"Where are you?"

"I'm in the bathroom!"

Infinity ran through the surprisingly large apartment looking from the bathroom. She passed it up the first time only turning back because Marie yelled for her.

Infinity entered the bathroom to be met with Ruiz on the floor with blood staining his lips and cheek, Marie sitting next to his side holding his hand.

"What's wrong with him?" Marie asked, her voice sounded broken and tired.

"I don't know honey… lemme have a look at him." Marie moved out of the way so that she could get a good look at her father.

Ruiz was a handsome man. Infinity was no good at profiling but she guessed he was a business man. He was dressed in a blue button down shirt with black slacks on. His sleeves were rolled up to the middle of his forearm, Infinity made note of the simple gold band on his left ring finger.

Infinity first bent over the man's mouth to make sure he was breathing. When she found he was she checked his pulse, it was dangerously weak and slow. She unbuttoned his shirt and pressed areas of his chest, looking to see if there could be possible damage to his lungs. She didn't feel any broken bones or see any bruising.

"I don't know what's wrong with him Marie. Try talking to him." She suggested. "Maybe your voice will… I don't know… wake him up. Maybe he'll recognize you."

Marie nodded and moved closer to her father's head.

"Daddy, it's me. It's Marie. I'm here. I'm safe. Daddy wake up. You can't die Daddy, I need you. Please wake up."

Ruiz mumbled.

"Daddy?"

"Marie?" He didn't open his eyes but his voice and words were clear.

"Daddy it's me. Open your eyes."

Ruiz opened his eyes and looked at his daughter. Quicker than a blink Marie and Ruiz were embracing tightly. Infinity smiled, glad that these two still had each other. It was the sweetest sight she'd ever seen since this apocalypse came about.

"Infinity?" Rochelle was in the door way. The two family members still embracing and crying tears of absolute joy and releasing any fears they had had.

"Yes?"

"Um. Ellis is awake…." She started. "Nick is too. But I just thought you'd wanna know."

"Thanks Ro. I'll be there in a sec."

Rochelle nodded and left.

"Mr. Ruiz. I'm sorry but can you tell me… are you sick?"

"No. I'm not infected."

"Okay. I was just wondering."

"Why?" He sounded a little impatient.

"Well. You were unconscious on the bathroom floor. And you had blood coming from your mouth, as if you had coughed it up or… or something."

"I feel fine… and I haven't been bitten." He sounded more understanding now.

"Okay. Well I'd like to have a look at you properly then… later. I'm a nurse. But I have to go check up on my friends."

He nodded and then looked back at his daughter and embraced her again. She left the two and went back out into the living room, immediately greeted by two small girls with pigtails.

Kneeling down she hugged both of them at the same time. Matt came over quietly and she gave him a hug too.

"How are you guys holding up?" She asked, scooping up Monica and heading over to one of the two couches, the recliner seat already occupied by the large and extremely tired Coach; Nick, Rochelle and Ellis nowhere to be seen.

"I'm tired."

"I'm hungry."

"I'm tired AND hungry." Matt said spreading his arms out and grinning.

Infinity was relieved that they still complained and they still smiled. They were still children.

"Well how about we see to it you all get some dinner and then some well deserved and need sleep."

All kids nodded their heads, the girls pig tails bouncing around with each nod.

Left4Dead

Infinity smiled as she tucked in the three children. All of them had eaten their fill of cereal, muffins, and cookies. They had guzzled water, apple juice, and milk. Not the healthiest but it got food in them, and it got them hydrated. That's all she cared about it. The three of them all snuggled together, she had brushed through the girls hair taking the pigtails out.

They were all asleep in no time.

She left the children to the master bed, in the other room were two twin sized beds where nick and Rochelle bunked up. Ruiz took the sofa bed with Marie, Coach had already been asleep in the recliner by the time the others were ready to sleep.

Ellis was already on the other couch. She thought about going back to the masters to sleep, that way she could keep an eye on the kids too.

She was turning around when a sleep deprived Ellis spoke out.

"Infinity? That you?" Ellis asked. The darkness of the apartment was ridiculous. They had pretty much boarded up the whole place to make sure no zombies just broke through the glass and tore them all apart. So there was no light from the outside, their only source was the flashlights but since they were all sleeping most were off but one as a nightlight, provided for the children.

"Yah it's me." She replied.

"Where you sleeping at?"

"I was gonna sleep with the kids."

"Oh… Okay."

"Why?"

"Oh. Well, uhm, Ah was gonna see if you wanted ta sleep here."

"On the couch?"

"Yah."

"With you still in it?" Her voice was low and husky.

"Erm… well. That all depends on you." He replied, not wanting to go any further than she was willing.

"Hm." She didn't say anything further, instead he listened as she shuffled away until he couldn't hear her walking anymore.

Ellis groaned, he said the wrong thing. Did she think he wasn't interested in her now? Had he been too cautious? Truth be told, he was VERY interested in her. She was funny, brave, tough, and caring. She was like the ultimate gal. Frankly, if they survived this he wanted nothing more than to try some sort of relationship with her. But if he kept putting his foot in his mouth she would never…

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard footsteps padding down the carpeted floor. This made him smile for two reasons, one that there was actually a place with carpet still rather than tile or wood, and two she was coming back.

"I had to find a blanket." She whispered.

"Great cus Ah was getting chilly."

"Well I can't sleep without a blanket anyway. When I sleep I always have to be covered by a blanket, even if I'm already like dying from heat."

"Ah see."

There was quiet shuffling then suddenly a loud thud.

"OW!" She whispered harshly. "Dang it!" There was shuffling and then suddenly there was a stream of light pointing at the floor.

"Damn table," She muttered, moving around the coffee table which had somehow escaped being used in the barricade. Using the flashlight to make sure she didn't run into anything else she continued her way towards him. Ellis could see that she had actually changed and let her hair down. Her hair was rather long, the length going down past her shoulders. It was brushed out, and looked beautiful. As a stray bang escaped the confines of being behind her ear she blew it out of her face and finished making her way towards the couch he was lying on.

"Where'd you get the clothes?" He asked.

She laid down next to him as he made room on the couch, his back pressed against the back of the couch, his head laying on top of the armrest but cushioned by the pillow Rochelle had brought him. She Nestled next to him, her back pressed up against his chest her head resting on his arm. She brought the covers over the two of them after she asked if he wanted any.

Once they were settled she answered his question and turned off the flashlight.

"There are some women's clothing in the master bedroom. The clothes were my size, so I thought "why not?" and threw them on. There were kids clothes too, fit the kids good. Only there isn't any boy clothes, poor Matt doesn't have comfy clothes…." She trailed off as she yawned.

"I'll have to find a store and get some clothes for them all before we head off again." She continued, "Probably get some extra groceries too. There's a lot of food here, but not enough for all of them to last a good amount of time."

"We'll get it done."

They were silent for a while and Ellis wondered if she had fallen asleep.

"How are you feeling?" That answered that question.

"Feeling better, Ah took some painkillers and what not. So Ah should be good now. Ma leg still bothers me now and again, but ma chest isn't nearly as bad as it was before. How are you feeling?"

"I'm glad you're doing better. You were looking pretty bad there for a while."

"Ah have a good doctor."

"You referring to me or Ro?" She asked.

"You of course. Rochelle was smothering Nick the whole time. She revived me and re-bandaged but that was about the extent."

"I see." She yawned again.

"You should get some sleep Infinity."

"Yah you should too."

He draped his arm around her waist, to his surprise she took hold of it and starting tracing her fingers up and down between his knuckles.

She yawned again, "Good night Ellis."

"G'night Infinity."


	9. Chapter 9

I do not own this game or its characters… except the kids and Ruiz.

Rochelle shuffled down the hallway, rubbing her eyes of sleep. She was dressed in shorts and a tank top, grateful for the change of clothes. Infinity had come in the guest bedroom and tossed her the articles of clothing last night. She turned on her flashlight as she entered the living room, on the sofa bed laid Ruiz and Marie; even in sleep Ruiz was holding his daughter close protectively. She looked to the recliner and smiled at the large snoring Coach, reclined all the way back. Then she turned to the couch and smiled even wider. Ellis and Infinity were cuddled together; Ellis had his arms wrapped around her, her back to his chest. What made her the happiest was the look of contentment and peace on their faces. Even with impending doom right outside their door these two managed to put smiles on others faces and smile in the face of danger. That was amazing, and an inspiration.

If she had a camera right now she would take a picture of these two. Not as leverage or blackmail, but as a reminder. That even during the darkest times… there was at least one moment of piece.

The quiet before the storm.

Left4Dead

Infinity woke up to the sound of giggling girls and a laughing boy. She opened her eyes and looked around, the sofa bed was back in place, the recliner was void and the children were running around the open space of the living room. Marie, Monica, and Alex were all running around while Matt was chasing them.

Infinity smiled, glad that the children were enjoying themselves and hopefully had a good night sleep.

She heard Rochelle and Coach laughing. She was curious and went to look towards where they were but then remembered the arms around her waist. She turned her head to look at Ellis who was still sleeping peacefully; apparently he was a deep sleeper.

She laughed quietly.

Ellis opened his eyes.

"Hey there."

She smiled again. "Hey there." She echoed.

"Sleep good?"

"Oh yah. You?"

"Yep."

They fell silent for a while just enjoying the closeness and peace. Infinity thought about how they were positioned. Thought about the sense of security she felt, but not only that it felt…. Cliché much…. Right. She thought about everything Ellis and she had been through, both of them thinking the other was going to die. She thought about how sad it made her to think he would give up. She remembered all the jokes and stories they had told each other and how much fun she had with him. She thought about the times when she had gave him a quick kiss on the head or cheek, or the times she had run her hand up and down his back, it all just came naturally.

She smiled as she thought about all the smiles he would flash her, or would set out to make sure she was safe. Always keeping his eye on her to make sure she was alright. It just seemed, to her, that everything they did came naturally, and what came naturally was loving touches…

"Hungry?" He asked suddenly.

"Yes!"

He laughed. "Okay c'mon."

The two of them got off the couch and headed for the small island in the middle of the kitchen where the others were all sitting around and talking.

"Hey, there's the lovers."

Ellis smirked.

Left4Dead

As the large group of people sat around the kitchen, whether it was around the island or sitting at the table they all laughed and ate happily. The man had found a good spot to hide, and with all of them they all felt safe and at peace. It was like they were just one big family who had no problems…

"Hey I was thinking that I should go out and get some more food… since there are going to be more than two people living here now. Maybe some extra clothes….?"

"Who said we were staying here!" Nick freaked out.

"Nobody! Nobody said WE were staying here. But I'm not taking four kids out there. They stay here with Ruiz… Once we get rescue we send them a chopper. We…" using her finger and jabbing it between the five of them, "are leaving tomorrow morning. They…" jabbing her finger between the four children and Ruiz, "are staying here until they are rescued. But they can't live without proper food now can they?"

"Oh." Was all Nick said before he went back to his cereal. "Wait a second!" His mouth still full of Cheerios, "Why TOMORROW morning?"

"I have to go shopping. Didn't you hear me? Besides we can use another night of normal sleep… in a safe place…"

"In each other's arms…." Nick finished batting his eye lashes.

"Oh, go to hell Nick." She stuck her tongue out at him.

Ellis butted in. "Hey guys, c'mon, just git along a little longer."

"Fine. At least we are "safe"…"

Infinity huffed and Nick just smirked and continued eating his cereal. As Coach walked by him to put his bowl in the sink he slapped Nick upside the head. "Ass hole." He muttered, Nick just kept smiling.

Ellis took Infinity's bowl with him as he took his bowl to the sink as well. Infinity and Rochelle laughed together as they walked to the family room with the kids, checking their sizes and getting opinions for food and snacks.

An hour later they had three pages of a notebook filled with ideas.

"Okay! We got what we think will be great for them." Rochelle announced.

"Which one of you gentlemen would like to come with us?"

Nick coughed and pretended to be busy and Ruiz excused himself and left for the bathroom.

Ellis watched as Infinity and Rochelle both turned to him. "Ellis sweety?" Rochelle asked in her sweet drawl. "You wanna come?"

"Uh, no thanks Ro… Ah want ta make sure this house is zombie proof, Ah'm gonna go around and make sure everything is secure."

"Fine." Rochelle huffed and turned to Coach, her partner in crime seemed occupied with Monica again. The sniffling young girl said something about "pushed" and "rub burn".

Coach got up from the recliner, Rochelle must have convinced him to come.

"Alright lil sister… I'll come with you."

Rochelle smiled and turned on her heel, she practically skipped to the front door.

"C'mon In'! I got Coach to go, let's go."

"In a moment." Infinity looked towards Rochelle for a moment before going back to the little girl. She had knelt down in front of the small sad girl. "Let me see it again." Monica held out her elbow to reveal an irritated red section, classic rug burn.

"Alright sweet heart. That doesn't look too bad. Lemme kiss it." Infinity kissed the small area on her elbow gently. "How's that?"

"It still stings." She whimpered.

"Alright, you wanna band aid?"

The girl nodded.

Infinity looked at him, "Ellis could you get her a band aid?"

"Sure."

Infinity looked at Monica, "Ellis will get you a band aid." When the girl didn't seem too pleased she continued. "And guess what? While I'm out… I'll see if I can find you some special band aids. With princesses or something… how does that sound?"

"Awesome!" The girl threw her arms around Infinity's neck and then bounded to Ellis and grabbed his hand and led him to the bathroom.

Left4Dead

Infinity laughed as she watched little Monica drag Ellis to the bathroom. She stood up and headed to the door where Rochelle and Coach were waiting, Rochelle smiling and Coach looking awfully impatient.

"Okay Okay I'm ready, let's go."

"Finally!" Rochelle threw up her hands and opened the door.

They had only run into a couple zombies on the way, mostly single shoppers or cashiers who never left the stores.

After an hour of shopping, they had about 11 bags full of clothes and only about 5 bags of groceries, almost all were being carried by Coach. They hadn't gone into the mall so the stores weren't all together more like 20 minutes apart from each other.

"Can we just steal a cart and use that to carry all of this shit?" Coach complained.

"Fine, this is our last store, we'll grab a cart on the way out and we'll use that to take all of this back to the apartment. Okay? Now stop complaining." Infinity huffed as she opened the door to the drug mart.

"Okay so what do we need here?" She asked Rochelle who was holding the notebook.

As Rochelle got a cart out for Coach to dump their stolen goods she looked at her notepad.

"We need whip cream, painkillers, frozen waffles, rubber bands, paper plates, so they don't always have to wash dishes, and we need hand soap…"

"Okay, oh remind me to look for band aids."

Coach put the last remaining groceries in the cart, "Hey Infinity."

She turned around to face him, he was leaning on the handle bar of the cart. "Hm?"

"Look for band aids." He smirked.

"Ugh."

He laughed as she turned around; she went down to the aisle she supposed would have both the band aids and the painkillers. The entire aisle was completely ruined. Boxes of band aids and bottles and other boxes filled with other crap littered the floor.

"Looked like these people were desperate to get rid of any symptoms of the infection."

"Yah…" She agreed. She stepped over things while looking for princess band aids.

"Found the painkillers."

"Grab anything. Everything that can help with any pain grab it. Oh and get cold medicine, just in case."

She found a couple boxes of band aids but they were all regular or transformers. She grabbed the Transformers one and tossed it into the cart.

"For Matt." She shrugged.

"Hey. I found some Hello Kitty band aids…"

"That'll do, good eye Ro." She heard shuffling and moaning and pulled out her duel pistol, as soon as the undead women came into view… which was on the ground she put a bullet in her head.

"C'mon lets finish it up here." The other two nodded in agreement.

They ended up finding ONE box of Princess and the Frog band aids, they finished the rest of their list and headed out.

"Wow we got really lucky, not many zombies."

"I still got bit." Coach moaned.

"Well then thank the lord you are immune."

"Bite me."

"I thought you were just complaining you got bit."

"Shut up."

The reached the stairs of the apartment and debated whether or not they should bring the whole cart up.

"They could use it reguarly."

"Yah but we don't need to bring it up to the house we could just leave it here."

"Well would you rather make one trip or several?"

Coach paused. "Fine we carry the cart up."

"Great! Be right back." Infinity ran up the stairs and into the apartment. Rochelle must have caught on because she was up behind her in no time.

Infinity ran over to where Nick and Ellis were talking with Ruiz while keeping an eye on the playing children.

"Hello my favorite boys!"

Nick and Ellis moaned.

She skipped up to Ellis and grabbed his hand, "Can you please help carry a cart up the stairs?" She gave him puppy eyes and a pouty lip pulling slightly on Ellis hand.

"Holy shit. You have a freaking CART?"

"What part of SHOPPING didn't you get?"

"They are girls Nick." Ellis put in, he still hadn't moved any further than what the tugs brought him.

Rochelle came in and took both of Nick's hands. "Please? Coach can't do it all by himself you know."

The two of them sighed but got up.

Once the cart was inside they unloaded it and all the children got into their new clothes. They all had a "family" dinner, and they even played card and board games. Nick was way out of his element with the "family bonding time" but he stayed through it all.

Throughout the night Infinity watched Ruiz. He constantly looked nauseous and would leave for the bathroom often and he looked pale.

She was about to ask to give him another look over when Rochelle announced the kids should be going to bed. All the kids squealed and started to run around the room in protest; so Ellis, Rochelle, Infinity, and Coach all got up to chase the 4 children. Nick eventually started to get irritated so to end the squealing sooner he got up to help.

After 30 minutes the kids were all dressed and in bed. However as Marie started to get into the sofa bed she stopped her.

"Marie honey? I'm gonna have you sleep with the others in the master bedroom okay?"

"Why?"

"I'll tell you in the morning okay?"

"Okay." She replied timidly.

After everyone else was settled; Nick and Rochelle in their room as well, and all the kids in the master bedroom only Coach, Ellis, Ruiz and herself remained. Coach was drinking a beer at the kitchen island and Ellis was preparing the couch for a nights sleep.

"Where is Marie?" Ruiz asked as he came from the bathroom again to lie down on the sofa bed.

"I asked her to sleep with the other kids tonight." She answered truthfully.

"Why would you do that?" Though the question was more of a angry statement.

"Because I think you are sick…."

"You think I'm infected?" Ruiz was giving her a death glare.

"Yes." She swallowed.

"Well that's a load of bull shit. I'm not infected. I'm immune like you guys."

"You may be immune to the air born… but that doesn't make you immune to bites."

"I was never bitten."

"Are you sure? Were you even scratched by an infected?"

"No! I was never even touched. You're a bunch of shit you know that! Let me see my daughter."

"If you care about your daughter then you will at least prove me wrong. Let you daughter sleep with the other kids and you sleep alone. I just want to be safe. Put your daughters safety first. Please. You may not be infected, I just want to be safe."

"Fine." He ground out. Ellis had come up behind her protectively during the argument, he had laid his hand on the small of her back in reassurance that she was safe, and that he was there for her. She smiled. This man was really starting to make…

"I'm not infected though." Ruiz said as he drifted off to sleep in his sofa bed. She had wanted to look him over, look for a bite or a scratch but she figured he was pissed off enough…

Coach came over, his beer gone, and sat in the recliner. "Good night." He mumbled.

"Good night." Ellis and Infinity said in union.

As Ellis began to lay back down on the couch Infinity started to walk away.

"You ain't gonna sleep here tonight?"

"I, uh… well the kids."

"Well the kids have one more space taken now, you wouldn't even be comfortable. If you don't like the idea with me being here you can have the couch and Ah'll sleep on the floor…"

Infinity smirked and walked over to the couch and got comfortable, once again, in Ellis' arms.

"Did you have fun shopping?" Ellis whispered.

"Mhmm." She mumbled.

"Good." With that all said they both fell silent and we both fast asleep within minutes.

Left4Dead

Wow…. Fluffy and light much? Sheesh. Well I'll just have to make the next chapter a little more morbid and intense for you all…. Unless you liiiiike it? Let me know! Review it and send me some ideas! I always love input and constructive criticism!

Next chapter will be up soon.


	10. Chapter 10

Ellis woke up with a start. He wasn't sure why though. As he looked around he didn't see anything out of place or anything that could have fallen and made a large noise. Though the lights were off and it was near pitch black so he couldn't be sure. He listened for any unusual noises, like moaning from any zombies, he didn't hear anything like that.

Ellis felt Infinity turn in his arms as she snuggled closer into his embrace, he smiled. He was DEFINENTLY asking her out when this was over.

Suddenly the room was flooded with light as their high powered flashlight, and their main source of light, was turned on. He closed his eyes shut from the sudden flood of light and tried desperately to open his eyes and see. Coach was up in an instant standing at high alert and Infinity was starting to panic a little as she wasn't sure what was happening from not being able to see right away.

"Ellis? What's' going on? Why is the light on?"

Ellis tried to open his eyes but he still had to keep them closed from the light. Coach seemed to be having trouble too.

"What the hell is going on! Who turned on the light?"

"Sshh!" Infinity hushed. "Don't wake the kids."

Finally Ellis was able to open his eyes and look around without feeling like he was blinded. Coach and Infinity didn't come long after.

"Who…?"

As the three of them looked around they didn't see anything out of place. Ellis looked to the sofa bed to see if maybe…

"Where's Ruiz?" He asked while staring at empty bed.

"Ruiz?" Infinity called.

They called for him quietly not wanting to wake anybody else when suddenly Infinity leapt from his arms and flew down the hallway.

Ellis looked to Coach for a second before both of them sprinted after them. When they found her she was in the master's bedroom with a pistol drawn and aiming at a single shadow in the dark corner of the room.

"Ruiz?" She asked even quieter than she had in the living room.

He didn't respond. Ellis looked between the man and the trembling women holding the gun. He had only seen her like this twice before. When they had first met and she told them about killing that little girl, and when he himself was dying from a Witches handy work.

_What does she know that we don't? _He wondered.

"Ruiz?" She repeated.

"I just wanted to see my little girl…." He answered just as quietly as Infinity.

"I know… but I asked her to sleep in here for a reason…"

"Because you don't want me to be with my daughter? She's all I have left!" He said a little louder.

"Sshh, please Mr. Ruiz! Don't wake the children…" She whispered harshly.

Ellis watched as the shadow raised his hands and seemed to fiddle with something.

"She meant a lot to you, didn't she? What happened to her?"

_There's one thing she knew that we didn't. Ruiz was married. What else did she know?_

"When the infection first hit she was at home. When I got there… she was gone. Not a trace of her. I don't know what happened…. She could be alive or dead out there and I have no idea. I don't' even know if I want to find her. I don't wanna see her dead… or just a walking corpse with no memory of who we were. My daughter is all I have left." His voice was back down to a whisper, he sounded sad as hell.

"I'm so sorry Ruiz." Infinity sympathized.

"And yet you won't let me see my daughter." His voice was hateful now. Ellis was frightened he would attack.

"You can see her. But I need to take a look at you. Just a quick… "Check-up" if you will."

"I'm fine! I don't' need to be "checked up" on!"

Matt woke up. "Infinity?" He whimpered, the scene itself was terrifying, but to see the person you trust most pointing a gun at your friend's father….

Infinity looked to Matt, "Sshh Matt, it's okay."

"No it's not. You're pointing a gun at Mr. Ruiz."

Infinity seemed to sag a little.

"Ruiz I would appreciate it if we could at least leave the room for this conversation."

Ruiz hesitated , his silhouette looking between the bed and Infinity. After a long while of obvious debating he took a couple steps forward, they walked down through the hallway to the family room. Coach telling Matt that things were fine and that it was a grown up disagreement, not to worry about it and go back to sleep. Ellis heard the door close, indicating that he had closed the bedroom door, he figured that was the best idea.

Ruiz had led the way so as soon as he turned around to face them in the living room Ellis couldn't help it.

"Holy shit man! Your f***ing infected!"

Ruiz was a pasty grey color, his eyes were sunken in and discolored. And the well hidden mite mark on his bicep was bleeding through now, it was just as obvious as night and day.

"I'm NOT infected damn it."

"Ruiz there is no denying it. And the fact you hid it from all of us and lied has put us all in danger! Including Marie, and that's selfish as hell." Coach shook his head in disbelief.

"If one of you say I'm infected one more…" he trailed off as he doubled over in pain and threw up on the carpet.

Coach had his gun drawn now.

Ellis wasn't sure what to expect, this guy was at the last stage he could "transform" any minute.

"I can't die… not now. My daughter needs me… what do I do?" he stood up and wiped his mouth of the vomit.

"Ruiz, man, we can't do anything for ya. Ah'm sorry…. There's nothing we can do….there's no cure there's…. nothing." Ellis admitted.

"We'll take care of Marie…" Infinity started.

"How? How could you people take care of my daughter? Or any of those other kids… You guys are always outside fighting for your lives. Those kids are too young to do anything for themselves…"

"You listen now! Those kids survived all on their own in that school, they survived when nobody else did. Those kids are survivors all on their own! We can take care of those kids we won't let them get hurt." Coach finally spoke up.

"I don't want to leave my kid."

"I'm so sorry Ruiz. I'm so so sorry." Infinity apologized.

Just as she apologized Ruiz bent of in pain and let out a scream. All three of them trained their guns on him.

He fell to the ground and started to convulse. None of them, though they knew he was gone, had the heart to pull the trigger. This man had shared beers with them, played games, laughed and lived with them. They had watched this loving doting father love his child with such passion it was…. just amazing. Then the thought of telling the small 10 year old child that he father was dead and was shot by one of them was holding them back.

Ellis couldn't imagine telling small little Marie what had happened to her father. She had lost so much already, SEEN so much already. It frightened him to think of how much this girl has gone through, killing her father would be like ending her….

Ellis watched stunned and helpless as the man convulsed as he died and then "rose". The man stopped moving completely, utterly and completely still… dead. The three of them stared at the once loving man as he laid on the floor.

"Oh god…." Infinity whispered. She lowered her weapon in defeat and sadness, feeling the loss of a friend.

Ellis lowered his as well, both of them with their pistols held at their sides he reached for her hand and squeezed it reassuringly. As soon as she did she sighed, despite their loss he felt happy when she squeezed back and didn't let go, instead interlacing their fingers.

"We should put him outside… before he comes back…." Coach muttered. He too feeling the loss but needing to remind his living friends what they had to do.

Infinity nodded numbly.

Coach moved forward to pick him up when suddenly Ruiz shot up and ran and jumped on him.

Before Coach could react Ruiz bit the base of his neck, near where the shoulder and the neck met.

He yelped in pain and surprise as he threw the dead man off of him. The noise had already brought the others awake so a gunshot was no longer a problem. At least that's what Ellis figured Coach was thinking, because the moment the zombie hit the floor Coach had brought out his shotgun and fired, putting a massive bloody hole in his face; ending the zombie instantly.

Infinity covered her mouth. Ellis pinched his eyes closed, their friend was gone… and Marie….

The scream brought Ellis back to the reality of it all.

Infinity ran over and caught Marie and picked her up and turned her away from the carnage. Once Marie was turned around she lowered them both to the ground; Infinity on her knees and horrified Marie standing. Infinity held Marie tight as she punched and kicked at her all the while screaming for her dad. As she continued with the sobs, screams, and fighting she started to lose her strength and soon just collapsed against Infinity sobbing into her arm. Infinity cradled her and stroked her hair saying she was sorry over and over again. Infinity rocked back and forth with the small 10 year old girl, who now had nothing left of her old life.

Everything Marie had ever known was gone.

Left4Dead

Infinity woke up in the master bed room, a sleeping Marie still in her arms. Marie was sweaty from the late night and heavy sleep. Infinity sat up a bit so she could see the sleeping girls face. Marie moaned a little and shifted in her arms. Marie still had tear stains going down her cheeks. The poor girl had cried herself to sleep. Not that she blamed her. She had nobody left. Her family was dead, anyone she knew in her past had left her. She only had her friends from school and the strangers who happened to find her.

Infinity looked around, it was just the two of them in here, the door was closed and there was no noise coming from outside the door, which told her that either there was uncomfortable silence or the others were still sleeping. She wondered briefly how the others were taking the loss, what they had done with the body, how Coach was coping, and what the kids were like.

She looked back down at Marie and brushed a piece of hair out of her face. She didn't want to leave the child but she wanted to check up on everyone else. She slowly got out of bed as quietly as she could, as not to disturb the sleeping girl. Once out of the bed she tiptoed out into the carpeted hallway and down to the living room.

Coach was, what appeared to be, drinking his fifth beer at the island sitting on the stool.

Nick was playing some sort of card game by himself at the table.

The other three kids were sleeping on the sofa bed, she noted the new sheets. The new sheets brought to mind the vomit. She looked to where Ruiz had been when he had puked and noticed that there was a couch cushion over it. The vomit reminded her of Ruiz himself, he was nowhere to be seen. She figured they had put him outside.

Rochelle wasn't around so she figured she was still in the back room.

She stopped at Ellis, he was on the couch they had been sleeping on but he was sitting up right. The right end cushion was gone.

He had his head leaned back and his eyes closed.

She came over and sat next to him.

"How'd you know he was married? How did you know he was infected? How did you know all of those things? You even knew where he would be…"

"I saw his wedding ring when I was looking him over in the bathroom when we first got here. I noticed the signs of infection during our "family night" but I had my suspicions when I first saw him. I knew he would be seeing his daughter, where else would he go? Especially since he knew he was dying, even though he denied it to us." She explained.

"How are you holding up? What were the kids like?"

"Ah'm fine. Physically, my leg is back up to speed and Ah hardly have any problem with ma chest; even took off the bandages. Ah've never had ta watch a friend die. The kids were terrified. They understood that Coach had ta do it… but that doesn't make them any less afraid. Coach is beating himself up. Rochelle went back ta her room, not sure what she's doing but she hasn't come back out. And Nick is gambling with himself." He smirked at the last one.

"Coach did what had to be done. If he didn't do it I don't think any of us would… not in time to stop any damage anyway…."

"How's Marie?"

"Cried herself to sleep. She's passed out now. I don't think anyone could wake her as of right now."

"Ah don't blame her."

"Neither do I…"

They were silent for a while, Ellis still half asleep sitting up and her looking and observing the ppl out in the living room, all doing their own things. Coach was downing his 6th now. She looked at the clock,

"We have to do something about the kids."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that we have to bring them with us."

"Infinity…."

"We can't leave them here alone Ellis."

"Ah know but…."

"It's safer for them to come with us than stay in a building all by themselves. They're only 6, 10, and 11… they can't take care of themselves."

"We could run into a Tank though…. we can't do anything for them… we wouldn't be able to protect them from a Tank… or any special…. "

"IFF we run into a special…."

"Or a common! These kids…." He interrupted.

"I'm not leaving them alone."

"What if we…."

"DADDY!" Everyone jumped to attention from Marie's scream, the three children jolted awake.

Infinity ran back down to the end of the hallway.

Marie was thrashing around in the bed, and screaming for her dad.

"Marie honey wake up." Infinity ran over to her and gathered her in her arms and stroked the girl's hair.

"Sshh wake up Marie."

"Daddy…" She whimpered.

"I know honey… I'm sorry…"

Marie opened her eyes and cried into her chest. "He's gone isn't he?"

"Yah baby… I'm sorry."

After a while Marie calmed down and they all went back into the kitchen. Coach left so not to upset the children.

Infinity felt bad for him. But he needed his space he was upset, she could understand that but she just felt bad that he was taking it so hard.

As they all ate their breakfast the adults debated, in "adult talk", what they were to do when it came to the children.

Ideas of having one of them stay at the apartment with the children while waiting for rescue was tossed around, as well as finding a QUIET working vehicle to transport them in, rather than a walking or taking an ambulance.

"No! I am NOT driving a minivan! I don't care if it has the most room, I am not driving a minivan." Nick protested.

"Who said you were driving?" Ellis teased.

"Who said YOU were driving."

"I drove the ambulance…"

"Yah and that almost got us all killed with your stupid hotwiring work and your bad directional skills!"

"YOU were supposed to give me directions! How was I supposed to see the street signs while I had bodies going over my windshield?" Ellis shot back.

"Well I know that I wouldn't have missed the road…"

"Both of you shut up!"

"We'll figure that out when the time comes. Right now we just need a plan to what kind of vehicle is best, that not only works but won't make tons of noise and draw attention."

"Hummer"

"Caravan"

And so the game of "name that car" began. Infinity listened impatiently for at least 15 car names that were bounced back and forth. Nick and Ellis sure knew a lot of car names. Of course Ellis was a mechanic, but she was somewhat surprised to hear Nick know so many. She wondered if Coach would be in this just as much as they were. All four kids seemed to be where she was , bored and annoyed.

"Guys…."

They kept going.

"Guys."

Nothing.

"Guys!"

They bother went silent and looked at her. She sighed a sigh of relief.

"Good. Now, I think you guys should both pick your favorite car that you think it would be most appropriate and then do rock, paper, scissors to decide what car we take."

Ellis and Nick both stared at her in disbelief.

"What?" She asked surprised at their reaction.

"That's a good idea Infinity." Alex piped up.

"Yah I love rock paper scissors!" Monica agreed nodding her head vigorously.

"C'mon let's go have a battle!" Matt exclaimed. The two girls followed Matt to the sofa bed. The three of them all sat on the bed and started playing,

"Rock, paper, scissors, One two three!"

"Marie…. Do you want to go play with them?"

"No" She replied simply.

"Okay." Infinity wasn't going to make her do anything especially after such a difficult situation.

Infinity huffed and rolled her eyes when she realized Nick and Ellis were bickering about driving and cars again.

She was about to yell at them when a small 10 year old girl beat her to it.

"SHUT UP! You guys act like complete immature idiots!"

All three adults turned to stare at the small girl. Infinity was dumb founded; Ellis and Nick were bright red. Nick was rubbing the back of his neck and Ellis took off his hat and ran his fingers through his hair.

Infinity finally brought herself to her senses.

"I'm going to go check on Coach." She stood up from the stool and then looked at the still red men. "Work this out like…" she smirked and looked at Marie who looked pretty satisfied and smug. "like mature children… er… adults." She winked at Marie who giggled.

Left4Dead

Don't worry everyone! The domestic life is almost over! The awesome band of zombie slayers will be back on the streets soon! So hang in there.


	11. Chapter 11

Like omg! MATT HAS TWO DIFFERENT AGES! I typo-ed big time! Matt is 8 everybody! Not 11! That was a couple chapters back I called him 11. But in chapter 7 I said he was 8… I'm sorry everyone. I'll have that fixed soon.

Matt is 8!

Left4Dead

One day later they had a plan set out and ready to go. Coach had been totally wasted yesterday, so they couldn't go the same day the plan was set but nobody seemed to mind.

Everyone still gave him plenty of room, he was not happy with how things went. He had outwardly admitted to Infinity that he knew it had to be done, and he was glad everyone was safe. It was the way the children looked at them that gave him trouble.

"Okay so we have the food?" Rochelle asked.

"Yah" Infinity responded.

"Do we have enough water?"

"uh huh"

"Extra blankets?"

"Check… Matt, get off the table… go help Monica pack her clothes." Infinity walked over to the dining room table and picked up the young boy and set him on the ground and shooed him away to help Monica.

Ellis couldn't believe what was happening. There were ZOMBIES outside and the women were talking and acting like they were leaving for vacation. Nick was obviously feeling the same way, his baffled expression didn't even BEGIN to express what he was thinking.

"What the hell? This is NOT a freaking vacation! We are going into potential DANGER that could EAT…" his outburst was cut short as Infinity and Rochelle both jumped on him and tackled him to the ground covering his mouth.

"What the hell Nick? We have kids here. We don't need to inform them of," She paused and looked for small listening ears. She lowered her voice to a harsh whisper. "Impending doom right outside their door. That's why this is so well prepared."

They were well prepared. With their "getaway car" right outside the door at the bottom of the stairs ready for them all to just get in and zoom out to the evac station. The hummer was even filled with gas with some extra cans in the back so if they needed it.

Most of the supplies were already in the car. Rochelle and Infinity's checklist was last minute stuff.

"So do NOT talk like that. As far as they need to know…. We are completely safe."

Ellis whipped around when there was a squeal and then yelling.

"Matt give it back!"

From the hallway came a teasing and laughing matt holding a small bear and an angry Monica running after him. They ran around the room for a while unaware of the awkward position the two women and cranky man were in. They all got up and stood in a "proper" position. Just in time too, Monica ran up to Infinity and tugged on her arm.

"He won't give me my bear back." She pointed her finger at the guilty boy.

"It's not her bear anyway. It was…"

"You're right but if Monica wants it then it's not yours to take… give her the bear back." Okay, Ellis had never heard that tone before. That was a legit mother tone.

Left4Dead

An hour and a half later it seemed they were all ready. The kids were all dressed.

All the girls had their hair in a pony tail, and were dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. Simple.

Matt was dressed the same way, jeans and t-shirt.

"Alright come on everyone it's time to go."

As everyone left the apartment and piled into the hummer nobody said a word. They were all completely silent.

"Everyone buckled?"

Uh huh's, yes', and Mhmm's, all filled the car.

As the hummer left the area, the apartment getting furth and further away everyone remained silent. The reality of how dangerous it really was outside finally hitting everyone. The safty of the apartment had given them all a sense of security, all of them almost completely forgetting the danger and intensity of their situation.

Ellis was sitting next to her in the first row of seats. Nick was driving and Coach had shotgun. Ellis had the window seat on the left, she was in the middle with Monica sitting next to her. In the back row was rochelle in the middle with Alex on her lap and Matt and Marie on either side of her.

Ellis leaned over to whisper to her. Nick had the radio on so there was a sense of some comfortablity. It wasn't loud but it was loud enough to cover the sounds of their whispers.

"So how are you? Really" he asked her.

"What do you mean? I'm fine. All of my injuries are healed, the kids are safe. Our plan is going without a hitch…"

"Emotionally"

"Oh." She put her hands in her lap and fiddled.

"Things are… painful right now. I've had to," she lowered her voice even more. "kill children. And I watched a friend die and transform… and watch another friend kill THAT friend. So… I dunno." She shrugged a little. "I guess I'm a little upset right now. But who isn't? How are YOU?"

"Pretty much the same place you are. Not lookin' forward to having ta take these kids out of the car… the danger will increase ten fold once they are out. Ah just hope we can protect them alright."

Infinity looked at Ellis, he looked back, their expressions mirroring each connection had grown so much during their time "off". They understood each other more, had learned more about each other's past and interests outside of slaying zombies. They had become close. Very close…

Infinity looked down as Monica snuggled closer to her, holding onto her new bear. Infinity unfolded her hands and wrapped her arm around the sleeping child.

"They love you. Especially Marie and Monica. You mean a lot to them."

"They mean a lot to me too. I wish I didn't have to take them out of the safty of the house. I worry about them."

"Nothing will happen ta them as long as we are livin' and breathin'."

"You can count on that."

After a few moments of comfortable silence she nodded her head to the back of the hummer. "How are they?"

Ellis looked back over his shoulder to look at the children and Rochelle.

When he looked back he smirked. "Sleeping. Even Rochelle is looking drowsy."

She laughed silently. They had been driving for about an hour now. She couldn't imagine walking all these children for this long… the dangers would be incredible and the walk itself would be awful.

An hour later and she was getting drowsy, enough so that she leaned over to Ellis and laid her head on his shoulder. In turn he laid his head on top of hers.

Left4Dead

Ellis wasn't sure how long he had been sleeping but he was rudely awoken when the car suddenly lurched forward, increasing its speed. Everyone else must have woken to the sudden change too because moans and groans filled the vehicle.

Infinity raised her head from his shoulder and looked around confused.

Nick was focused on the road so Coach turned around to explain.

"Tank"

That was all anybody needed; they were outrunning, or at least trying to, a Tank.

All of them were stunned and frozen in anticipation and fear as they listened, and felt, the Tank get closer then fall behind and repeat. None of them moved none of them screamed they were just frozen.

After 5 minutes of being statues the rumbling of the charging Tank disappeared. It wasn't until he felt Infinity let go of his hand that he realized they had been gripping each other's hands.

"Everyone alright?" Coach asked from up front.

Again, the car was filled with yes' and uh huh's.

"Good drivin' Nick." Rochelle complimented from the back.

"Well we're ahead of schedule now…" Nick laughed.

"One upside…"

Everyone let out a nervous laugh.

Now that the ice was broken the rest of the ride was a little bit more relaxed. Ellis was telling stories here and there. The kids sang camp songs. Games were played, and jokes were exchanged.

During the time in the car Infinity reached over and grabbed his hand again, their fingers interlaced.

After about an hour things seemed to settle back down.

"About 20 minutes." Nick announced.

"Wow so we were about 4 hours away…."

"More like 6…"

"Thank god for cars."

20 minutes out and they were at the evac station.

"Doesn't look to "busy"…" Ellis looked around the sidewalk, scanning for infected.

"I don't' see anyone… but there could be some inside." Infinity observed.

"Coach and I will lead. Kids in the middle, Infinity stay in the middle with them. Rochelle and Ellis bring up the back." Nick ordered.

"Yes sir." Ellis fake saluted.

"Don't get smart Ellis." Nick warned.

Left4Dead

Infinity looked around the first floor. She still didn't see anyone, survivors or infected.

"Hey look guys. An elevator…" Rochelle pointed to the elevator.

"I don't think we should take that little sister."

"Why not?"

"Because it could be broken. What if we get in and half way up and the cable breaks?" Nick inputed.

"That could happen anyday. Don't tell me you took the stairs all the time Nick, even when there weren't zombies everywhere."

"No, but I'm just saying the chances have increased significantly."

"There are 25 flights of stairs you guys…." Infinity started.

"I don't wanna go in the elevator. What if Nick is right? I'd rather walk than fall…" Marie spoke up.

Everyone turned to her. Infinity quirked her eyebrow.

"Alright then. Stairs it is." Nick smacked his hands together and walked to the stairway.

24 flights of stairs later and all the children were being carried, there had only been a couple handfuls of zombies, not much of a problem. Nick and Coach took care of them before anybody could even see them.

Nick opened the door, sunlight flooded into the dimly lit stairway. As they spilled onto the flat they saw several helicopters, they all ran to the middle of the cement flat waving their arms, the children jumping up and down and shouting.

They all cheered and whooped when they saw one of the choppers head their way.

"They're coming!" Monica squealed and jumped up onto Infinity. Ellis smiled as Infinity instinctively wrapped her arms around the small girl.

They all stood back as the chopper began it decent onto the roof.

Once it was settled they all ran to the helicopter but all froze as they saw that there were already a good amount of people inside.

"Holy shit." The co pilot exclaimed.

"We… aw shit."

The survivors looked at the passengers, there were 6 people inside already strapped in.

"Um, damn." The co pilot looked at the 9 survivors. "We can only take 11 at a time.  
he paused then looked to the pilot. "Can you call another chopper here? Have them pick them up?"

They all, pilot, current passengers, and the survivors, waited anxiously for the news.

Ellis' heart dropped when he saw the pilot shake his head at his co pilot, it dropped even further when the co pilot turned to the group and with an apparent weight in his words told them nobody could pick them up. Nobody was available.

"We can take four of you."

"Take the kids."

The pilot nodded his understanding. The kids were first priority especially now. The children went into the chopper. But Monica wouldn't let go of Infinity.

"No don't go." She whimpered.

"I have to."

"Noooo" She cried.

Ellis watched as Infinity struggled with her emotions and words, she opened her mouth to talk but was cut short by the co pilot.

"We could take you. With the kids plus what we already have that would make 11. We can take one of you guys as well." He offered quietly.

Infinity looked back to Monica and then to the other children. She was about to say something but, again, she was cut off. This time banging on the door, the one that led to the stairway, from which they came and now the infected.

Infinity seemed to have been thinking when suddenly she bolted from the helicopter. The strapped Monica pulling at her restraints.

"Infinity what the hell are you doing? Those kids need you!" Coach shouted over the shouts and cries of children, the banging on the door, and the choppers propellers.

"It's not up for debate!" She yelled back, tears threatening to spill over. She ran to where the pilot could see her.

"They need you!"

She ignored the requests and shouts of theadults, children, and even the co pilot. She pointed into the air with her pointer finger and spun her arm around, signaling the pilot to take off. When he hesitated she screamed at him, "GET OUTTA HERE DAMNIT!"

Just as soon as the words left her mouth the zombies broke through. The pilot finally decided it was best if he did leave. As the zombies came running towards them the 5 survivors held them away from the chopper, shooting them as they came. Once all the zombies had fallen the made their way back to the stairs.

Infinity was leading, almost sprinting down the stairs.

"Infinity will you wait up?"

Infinity stopped and stood on the platform a couple flights below them.

Once down the stairs the 4 of them stared at their companion. Nick opened up first.

"What the hell was that? You left those kids! They needed you and you left them. They are all alone again!"

Infinity looked down, her hair wasn't up like it usually was but it was down around her shoulders again. Her face was covered by her hair so there was no way to see what she was thinking or what her facial expression was.

Nick continued. Which sort of surprised Nick since he wasn't one for the kids to begin with. "Those kids are with total and complete strangers! They won't know anyone… they have nobody to trust now and all becau…"

Before anyone could respond or even blink, Infinity was right in front of Nick, her fist collided with his nose; a loud crunch could be heard, his nose was definently broken. Nick stumbled backwards holding his nose and slid down the wall to the floor.

"I know damnit! You think I made that decision lightly!" Tears were spilling down her face, "I knew they would be safe! That was all I could go on. They have medical and military personal looking after them! But what do you guys have? I couldn't leave you alone. You guys AREN'T safe no matter how bad ass you are. If I had gone with them, WHICH by the way I wanted to…." She took a moment to gather her breath and collect her emotion. She wiped at her face furiously, wiping the tears from existence. " If I had gone with them I would be in some sort of safe facility with four kids… and the whole time the only thing I'd be able to think about is where you guys are and how you are holding up. Call it my own selfish desire but THAT is why I stayed. I could care less if you think I'm a selfish, bitch…" she spat the word out, "but that is my decision. You don't have to like it, hell **I **don't like it. But talking down to me and trying to get me talk or make me feel guilty isn't gonna magically POOF me onto the helicopter. So lay off damnit!"

It was obvious that without her consent a sob escaped her lips as she covered her mouth and flew back down the stairs.

Nick had never left the floor, his nose was still bleeding. All of them were frozen in their spots, unable to fully comprehend all that has just happened. Rochelle was the first to snap out of it and went and knelt next to Nick to check his nose.

"She's really pissed… at you or not I'm not quite sure." Rochelle commented while she handed him a cloth and looked at his nose.

"No really? I never woulda guesshed Pshe wapsh pisshed." Nick mumbled. The lack of ability to breath from his nose messing with his speech. Ellis really wanted to laugh.

Coach had finally come out of his stupor as well.

"She just ran off… I'm thinking we should go after her?"

"Kinda busy here Coach." Rochelle said as she continued to look at Nicks nose.

"Oh for Pete's sake!" Ellis exclaimed, unable to hold it in. "It's a bloody broken nose…. Literally. Get over it! Infinity is down there somewhere ALONE with infected…"

A scream resounded through the stairway.

"Infinity!" All of them got up immediately and ran down the stair well.

6 flights down they found something disturbing. Infinity was being held up by a smokers tongue. She was in the middle of the stairway. Still about 14 flights up the fall from that would kill her immediately. The smoker was still alive, which implied that he knew he had someone in his… tongue. Which means that this smoker was up to something more complex than the usual drag and kill.

"Help" Infinity gasped. She had the tongue wrapped around her throat nothing else. She didn't have any weapons in her hands but instead was clawing at the tongue trying to get air in her lungs at the very least. She was being hung.

"Oh god…"

"What is it doing?"

"Why hasn't it killed her… or dragged her into the hordes?" Rochelle asked

Infinity let out a strangled cry. "Just kill me…" She whispered.

"No. No way!" Rochelle shouted.

Ellis was unable to say or do anything.

"We're not letting you die." Coach confirmed.

"I don't… Deserve…" She gasped for air, "to… live." She gasped again wringing her hands on the tongue of her tormenter. "Left kids… selfish."

"Stop it. We'll get you out." Rochelle said, her voice held determination, they were gonna save her.

"Well we can't just kill the Smoker… it'll drop her. She'll fall to her death."

"What if we catch her?" Nick suggested.

"How would we…? Oh." Ellis caught on.

Coach and Ellis ran past the Smoker and down a couple more flights. Nick went around behind the Smoker, Rochelle was taking up aim.

Nick was gonna try and catch her before she fell too far in case she could be saved before the very last second.

What he couldn't understand was how or why the Smoker wasn't doing what his instincts would normally make him do.

A gunshot sounded and he looked over the railing up the stairwell, a limp Infinity falling down. He and Coach both reaching out their arms in hoping of catching the girl.

He grunted as the weight brought him down but Coach was helping in an instant.

They brought her over the railing and onto the flat of the stairwell.

_She's not breathing… oh god she isn't breathing._

"She's not breathing!" Ellis laid her out flat and started pumping her chest. "Oh god."

Ellis tilted her head back a little, pinched her nose and breathed into her mouth. Still nothing.

"Damn it!" He pumped her chest again, repeating the process.

Still nothing, she was completely limp and non responsive.

"No… Infinity… NO" He repeated the process once again. She still didn't take a single breath, she was gone.

"She's dead." Coach said. The three were all standing in a huddle, unable to do anything to help, only able to stand there and watch as one companion died while the other tried desperately to save her. But it was all in vain, she had suffocated. She was gone.

Left4Dead

It's about bloody time! Sorry it took so long. Hope it was good. Reviews are apprieciated. Let me know how I'm doing. How can I improve? Any suggestions? Is it flowing alright? Is it getting lame? How am I doing? TELL ME... review or send me an email. The email adress is in my profile. Don't be shy.


	12. Chapter 12

_Thank you guys so much for the reviews THAT made my day so awesome. _

**Baseballfan**…. _Thank you so much for your review. I named her Infinity because that's my nickname. I wasn't even trying. I can have everyone call her Marie if you want… 'cause if you'll remember, that's her real name. I don't believe in trying hard to be different. If you're different you're different. You shouldn't TRY to be different. So I wasn't trying to be different, it's just a nickname I have…. I'm not called "Infinity" often but I am called it. Mainly by my dad._

**Hatter of mad Proportions**…. _Thank you so much for your review. Don't worry, I ALWAYS elaborate. I just have a thing for cliff hangers. But it will all be explained very quickly I assure you. :D _

_Thank you to everyone else who is reading and reviewing. _

_Enjoy!_

_Disclaimer: I own nobody and nothing… this all belongs to the creators of Left4Dead…."Valve" I believe?_

Left4Dead

He wanted nothing more than to be with this girl in more ways than one, and now she was dead, gone… all because… but no. Ellis wasn't going to quit. He went to repeat the process when suddenly she let out a shuddering breath and then inhaled sharply.

Ellis pulled her up to cradle her as she breathed in much needed air. She wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his shoulder. He held on to her tightly, as if they were to release each other she would disappear. Once her breathing was steady again they released each other and Ellis looked her up and down, looking for apparent injuries. The only one he could find, of course, was the black and blue bruising around her neck.

"I'm okay." She whispered.

With his help she stood up and looked at the others. Rochelle came over and gave her a hug, Coach gave her a good slap on the back, "Glad you alright kid."

"Thanks Coach."

She looked to Nick who nodded at her and smiled. "Good to know you aren't gonna go out that eashy."

Infinity smirked.

After a moment of silence Infinity spoke up. 'Okay there are other matters to attend to but before then I have one question…. WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT WHOLE THING ABOUT? Why was the Smoker HANGING me?"

"Two things pop in my mind…. One: The bastard was injured or something so it couldn't do everything it wanted to after it somehow got you over the railing, so it couldn't get you back up… or let you go… okay forget that one. Two: They are getting smarter." Rochelle reasoned, shifting uncomfortably with the idea.

"I'm gonna go with that one, despite that it's not good." Infinity agreed.

"Damn. Sho the Shpecial infected are… evolving?"

"Seems to be…" Coach said.

"Sorry about your nose Nick…" Infinity observed Nick still holding the cloth to his bloody nose.

He shrugged. "It'sh okay. I probably desherved it…"

"Alright. Now that things seem a little bit clearer…. Shall we get a move on?" Coach indicated to the staircase.

They all nodded and moved back to the stairs to continue their descent.

A couple flights down Infinity spoke up again.

"Aw man. I don't have my shotgun. Crap! No fair. Damn Smoker owes me."

"What happened to it?" Ellis asked.

"I dropped it."

"Maybe it didn't break…." He offered.

"I think 14 flights of stairs would be enough to shatter it."

"Eh, you might get lucky…"

Left4Dead

They made it to the bottom floor of the stairs but it was all on fire. Smoke was thick and filed the air. It was near impossible to breathe or see. She could hardly even see where her friends were let alone shoot to kill.

"I can't freaking see!" She admitted.

Suddenly something grabbed her arm, instinctively she whipped around to face her assailant. She saw Ellis and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Don't worry we're almost out." He pointed to something but she couldn't tell what it was. "There's a safe room not far from here. Come on." He grabbed her hand and led her through the flames. She could feel the smoke in her lungs, she was already having problems with breathing from her near death but the smoke was adding to her problems.

The five of them fought through hordes of infected and through smoke and fire. All the while Ellis held her right hand and she fired at zombies with her left pistol.

They finally broke through the smoke and fire when they came across the lobby, Infinity rubbed her eyes.

Infinity and the pulled her hand out of Ellis' and pulled out her right pistol. She reloaded them both and got ready for the attack. As they entered the room she saw the safe room.

"There's the safe room!" She yelled as she shoved one zombie back and then shot it as it stumbled backwards.

"Charger!" Coach yelled.

She turned around just in time to receive an oversized fist in her gut. She flew backward as the Charger charged through her until her back made contact with the wall. She felt herself fall to the floor, breath completely gone. She braced herself on both sides of herself and tried to get air back into her lungs.

She focused on breathing when she remembered she was being attacked. She looked up and right as the Charger was about to pummel her it jerked back and forth as it was riddled with bullets from behind. The Charger turned around to face its assailant and charged. She didn't really see anything else as two arms wrapped around her, she expected Ellis and was surprised to see Nick help her to stand and then half dragged her into the room.

Nick lowered her to the ground, and entered the doorway to keep the Charger out of the room. She refocused on making sure she could breath properly checked to make sure her body was working right.

Infinity closed her eyes. She reopened them when she felt someone in front of her.

"You okay?" Ellis was kneeling in front of her.

"Yah I'm fine. I just got the wind knocked outta me is all." She gave him a small smile.

Once everyone was patched up they all settled around the room. Nick and Rochelle had settled once again next to each other and Coach had taken to a corner in the back.

Ellis came over from the small bar looking table and sat next to Infinity but was turned so he was looking at her.

"You okay?"

"I… I don't know. I really did leave those kids…. And oh… Ellis I want you to know… earlier in the stairwell when I kept saying that you guys weren't safe… and stuff… I didn't mean to make it sound like you guys couldn't do this without me I just meant that…"

"Sshh, sshh. Ah know. And about the kids… they're safe. That's what matters most. They'll be okay."

Infinity looked at him, she knew he was right but she still thought she had made a bad choice. Those kids were all alone again, with nobody to trust. Marie was probably worse off, her dad just died… and she had been given away to a bunch of strangers. She couldn't imagine how Marie was feeling, any of the children for that matter.

She hadn't noticed she had been crying until Ellis stroked the side of her face with his thumb, wiping away her single tear.

"I left them… and what about Marie… her father just died and I left her with those strangers… she doesn't have anybody now."

"She's got Matt, Monica, and Alex. She'll be okay."

Left4Dead

Ellis looked at Infinity. "Infinity…" she wasn't paying attention, "Infinity…." Still nothing, he cupped the side of her face guided it so that she was looking at him. "Marie." Her eyes snapped to his face. "Don't beat yourself up over it. Please. You know what? I know for a fact, that if any of us…" He pointed at them all as he named them. "Nick, Rochelle, Coach, or Ah, had been in that position… we would have done the exact same thing."

Infinity looked down, when Ellis heard her sniffle he brought her into a hug and stroked her hair.

"Sshh, it's okay." Once she had calmed back down he released her but they stayed next to each other. Infinity was nestled so that he had his arm around her shoulders and she had her head resting on his shoulder.

"You know something?" She asked quietly, the others had either fallen asleep or were very close to sleep.

"Hm?"

"I'm worried." She paused, waiting to see if he responded, when he didn't she continued. "About the Special Infected, what's gonna happen? If they are evolving and getting smarter… just how smart will they get?"

"Ah don't know…. Hopefully we are OUT of here by then." He sighed. He really hoped they would get out of here soon. He was so tired of this life, running around and shooting all the time. Always wondering what was around the next corner and if they'd all survive another day.

"Well the mall is the next evac station… or so the pilot had said. It's not far from here…." She yawned.

"You are so predictable." He laughed silently.

"Huh? How am I predictable?"

"You always start yawning about 5 minutes before you're out." He told her.

"You would know?"

"Ah would. We've been sleeping tagether for the past two weeks or so."

Infinity didn't respond instead she bit the inside of her lip and blushed.

"Not TAgether tagether… just… in the same room." He laughed again.

"Oh right." She laughed nervously, before she yawned again.

He laughed. "Alright, go ta bed. We're off again tamorrow mornin'."

"Okay…"

"Oh and Marie?" he used her name, wondering if that was okay he looked at her face. She was smiling like a child at Christmas. He wondered how often she heard her name. He knew she hadn't ever been called that while he had known her.

"Yah?" She asked bringing him out of his wonderings.

"Ah'm really glad you're okay."

"Thanks. For saying that… and for saving me… literally."

"Ya scared the hell outta me."

"I'll try not to."

"Good!" They laughed quietly together before they were both silent again and fell asleep.

Left4Dead

Infinity had a shotgun again. Her other one had been destroyed from the fall. "Killed in action. He will be missed." Ellis had taken off his hat and placed it on top is heart. "A moment of silence?" Ellis had bowed his head, Nick had come up behind him and gave him the "Gibbs slap".

She laughed and checked her gun and then secured it on her back.

Nick was at the door with Coach behind him, Rochelle was standing over the counter bar thing with her gun out on it, she was checking a map. "Yah alright…" She ran her fingers over it, memorizing the roads and turns.

Rochelle grabbed her gun off the table and cocked it, she was ready. "Let's go."

They all crowded around the exit as Nick took a deep breath. "Ready?"

"Ready." They confirmed.

Nick opened the door and they all opened fire at the roaming infected.

After walking and following Rochelle's directions, while killing zombies on the way they came within sight of the mall.

"Well there it is." Infinity pointed to their destination. Again they were back in formation she and Ellis were walking together, when Ellis looked at her. "How's your neck?"

"Oh, it's alright. Just some bruising is all. It's still unsettling to think that they are getting smarter."

"We're still better than 'em. We'll still kick their asses and get the hell outta here."

"I know. It just makes me nervous…."

Infinity looked at Ellis, he smirked. "Don't worry, Ah'll protect you Marie." He winked at her and she smiled but then looked down at her feet, her shoes were FASINATING!

"I like it when you call me by my name…"

"Well, Ah'll just have ta keep doing it then." He did his special genuine smile. She really loved that smile. "We're gonna get outta this Marie, smart zombies or not."

She smiled, and suddenly felt flirtatious. She looked around to make sure there weren't any apparent zombie hordes around and then leaped at Ellis grabbing his hat and putting it on her own head. She kinda winced slash laughed at the dampness of the hat, but none the less kept it on and wouldn't let him grab it.

"Girl, you are gonna get it! Gimme ma hat!" She ran around in circles, dodged and weaved all to keep his hands away from her head where his precious hat sat.

"You gotta get it first." She laughed. Ellis grabbed her wrist and pulled her into his chest. So to prevent his win she took the hat off and tossed it to a waiting Rochelle, who was wide open. Rochelle grabbed it and waved it teasingly at Ellis.

"No fair. You can't team up!"

"Just did!" Rochelle and Infinity laughed in union.

"Nick Coach! Help me out here!"

Surprisingly they did. Nick came up behind Rochelle and held onto her, wrapping his arms around her waist. Coach came up next to them both and tried to snatch the hat but Rochelle threw it to Infinity again. She immediately put it back on her head.

"Come and get it." She prompted. She clasped her hands behind her back and swayed side to side.

"Girl gimme ma hat."

"Mmmm, no thanks. It's more fun to see you try and get it."

"Fine then Ah just won't be fun." He said smirking.

She shot him a confused look.

"The hat looks great on you. Keep it." He smiled.

"You suck. You aren't any fun."

"Can Ah have ma hat back now?"

This time it was her turn to smirk. "Why? She drawled in his accent. "You said it looks good on me."

"Ah… but… uh… wait… that…. That didn't work like it was supposed ta."

She shrugged and sashayed past him, pulling her hair out of her ponytail and flicking it in his face on the way. He was too flustered to think to grab the hat.

"You really should think things through better Overalls." Nick laughed, and turned to follow the leading Infinity; who was halfway to the mall.

Rochelle laughed and followed. Ellis hung his head and followed, as he passed Coach, said man slapped him on the back.

"Better luck next time."

Left4Dead

They were in the elevator talking about their plan to get the car to escape the city.

While the plan was being discussed they were all checking their weapons and getting ready for what was to come. Infinity really looked hot in a trucker hat. She had pulled her hair through the hole in the back and had it in a high ponytail now. Some of her bangs had fallen to the front and hung from the hat in her face.

"Yo, Ellis. Keep your focus on the zombies for just a little longer, alright?" Rochelle snapped her fingers in his face when she caught him staring at Infinity.

"Right, sorry." Rochelle just laughed and rolled her eyes. The elevator "dinged" and the door opened a moment later.

"Get the gas cans!"

They split up, all of them running for the gas cans, shooting the infected on the way.

"Charger!"

"Spitter!"

"Holy SHIT!"

"Damn it!"

"What the hell?"

"He's got me!" Infinity yelled out. The Charger had gotten to her and was proceeding to pummel her to a pulp.

Ellis punched the zombie in front of him and then shot him in the face, splatting blood on his face. He ran up the stairs where Infinity was being beaten.

"Hey you, sonofabitch! C'mere!"

As expected the Charger didn't do anything.

He fired a couple rounds at the Infected.

"Aye! Ah'm talkin' ta ya!"

Once the Charger started charging him he opened fire onto the Infected and it dropped mere inches from his feet.

Infinity was already up and shoving infected back and shooting them.

Ellis ran up to her and fought beside her.

Once the small horde was dead they both ran to the pile of gas cans and grabbed them.

"We got 1! Four more!" Nick shouted.

"We got two!" Ellis yelled. Infinity and he were running down the stairs as fast as they could. Both desperate to leave this place behind.

"Alright two more!" Nick said once the two were at the car and filling the tank.

"Ellis get the car ready to go, Infinity cover him and I'll go get the last one. Ro' and Coach are getting another. " Nick shouted over his shoulder, and took the stairs two at a time.

"Where are they?" Infinity asked, looking around the mall area.

"There." Ellis pointed to the running pair, Rochelle running forward with the can and Coach covering the back, keeping any infected away from her.

Once Rochelle came up to the car she poured the gas into the car.

"That's one more!" Rochelle breathed heavily.

"How many more do we need?"

"Nick is getting the last one." Infinity informed, "Ellis is cuing up the car." She indicated to the working Ellis, who was making sure all was in order; looking under the car for missing or loose parts. He chose that moment to pop up and clap his hands together.

"We're all good." He smiled broadly.

"Okay good, now we just need to wait for-"

"Help! They got me cornered!"

"That's Nick!" Infinity shouted. She ran up the stairs without a second thought.

"Come on guys! I can't do this alone!" Nick yelled.

"Shit. Coach git this car ready ta go. Ah'm gonna go help."

Ellis ran up the stairs after Infinity.

Left4Dead

Infinity grabbed an axe from the floor on her way to Nick. Nick was grunting and yelling out. Finally she found the large group of attacking zombies, all beating and snapping at the unfortunate victim.

He had fallen to the ground and was fighting for his life with an assault rifle.

"I have not…. Made it this….far…. to die…NOW!" Nick yelled out in determination.

Infinity ran straight into the horde and starting swinging the axe, dismembered body part and limbs flying and falling to the ground.

Nick was still shooting but even with their combined efforts it didn't help. She screamed in frustration as even more infected came pouring out of the door across the hall.

"Damn it! Why does the mall have to be such a big social place!"

Rather quickly despite both of their efforts she fell as well. She fell near right next to him, both drenched in blood, both their own and that of their own victims. She pulled out her duel pistols and shot at the attacking zombies.

"Help!" She screamed.

Infinity was starting to panic, she couldn't fight like this forever. She was about to yell out for help again when suddenly all of the zombies turned direction and ran the other way; leaving their would be victims alone. The smell of puke was in the air.

"Hey guys! Sorry Ah'm late." Ellis offered her a hand up which she gratefully took and stood up. Nick was beat up to a near pulp.

"Damn Nick." She cursed under her breath. While they had been fighting she hadn't noticed that Nick had stopped shooting. He was jacked up, one of his eyes swollen shut, and the other barely able to stay open. His arm looked a little funny and he was breathing heavily.

She looked to where the zombies were all standing around, drawn to the boomers bile.

She and Ellis pulled Nick up, they both froze when Nick screamed in pain.

"Ah! Watch the arm!"

"Sorry." She apologized and eased his arm over her shoulder as carefully as she could.

The two of them combined half dragged the injured man down the hall and down the stairs.

"Shit!" Ellis yelled when they both heard another wave of infected coming.

"Don't they ever stop?" Infinity complained. This was getting so old, she couldn't' wait to get the hell out of here.

They ran as fast as they could, with the man between them, down the stairs and to the car.

"C'mon c'mon c'mon!" Rochelle waved them to the car. Looking, not at them but, behind them. They were cutting it close. And close it was, when a Hunter jumped from the balcony and right next to Infinity.

"Rochelle help! Hunter!" She screamed. They couldn't afford more delays, they needed to get out of here.

Rochelle pulled out her shotgun and fired. Infinity didn't even bother to look behind her, instead she focused on the car.

The three of them stepped up onto the podium. Infinity got in first and Ellis helped get Nick in next to her. Despite what she thought, Rochelle came in after Nick. Ellis put the seat back into place and got into the driver's seat and Coach went into the passenger seat. They closed the doors and Ellis roared the race car to life, he gassed it and drove out the front, smashing the front doors and any zombies out front as well. They were on their way to freedom.

Finally…

Left4Dead

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	13. Chapter 13

_Sorry it took so long. I've had the BIGGEST writers block that I've EVER had. I couldn't think of a GOOD way to end this. Like… I just… *sigh* never mind. Just… read it.*walks away all frustrated*_

_Disclaimer. I don't own anything…. They all belong to the creators of Left4Dead._

Left4Dead

Infinity looked out the window. She was so tired; relieved… but totally tired. They were finally out of that damned city. She couldn't believe all of that was really real that it wasn't a dream, that all those lives were really gone.

She sighed and brought her legs up to her chest and laid the side of her head on her knees.

Currently they were in a hospital of sorts, making sure that the five of them were all clean. She was sitting on her window sill, the only window in her room. They all had their own rooms, she had been in hers away from all the others for 8 hours 45 minutes and…

She looked at the clock on her wall, 32 seconds.

She felt so alone and scared without her friends. She felt terrible that she was so dependent on them now, but it just felt so wrong not to see them or hear Nick and Ellis bickering. It was quiet again and she HATED quiet, _I guess it from being in a city full of zombies so long. Where silence meant awkwardness, where it meant that there was something big coming._

She sighed for the billionth time and laid her head on her knees again, looking out the window. One thing that was good about this room was the view. They were right on the ocean, she could see the blue water for miles, the setting sun made it have a orange sheen up on the horizon.

When they had left the mall with that race car Nick had a near broken arm. So they had to fix that but what was awful was that even though they had plenty of gas it didn't matter. They had to stop early. The bridge had been covered in cars, they couldn't use the car anymore, they had to walk over the bridge. Leaving the car there, it took another 2 weeks before they were finally rescued.

They had been running through that city together for 5 weeks. That's one month. She couldn't believe it.

The door to her room opened. She didn't look, the doctor she had sucked. _Insensitive sonofabitch…_

The jerk head hadn't been able to find a vein easily for the IV so he poked and prodded her with the needle for a good 10 minutes on both arms. When he got tired of trying he jabbed it into her arm with as much force as he could. When she screamed he yelled at her and told her not to be such a baby.

She had stopped screaming looked him right in the eye and punched him in the nose just as she had Nick at the hotel. After that it was a constant staring contest, as well as a how-much-damage-can-I-do-to you- game.

She looked at her aching arm; it was covered in bruises and cuts, not from the zombies she had managed to keep from killing her, but from the doctor and his damned IV She huffed and laid her head back down and continued to watch the sunset.

She had asked his nurse one time if she could tell her how her friends were doing. She had opened her mouth to respond when the doctor came in and told her, "Infinity has no right to know how other patients are doing."

_They HELL I don't. _She though currently. _What a son of a gun. I HATE him. I spent 5 weeks with those people, we are finally safe and we have YOU for a doctor. That's a bunch of bull sh-_

"Marie?"

_That's not Dr. Butt Head. Dr. Jerk Face knows me as Infinity. He doesn't even know my real name. Not to mention…. Dr. Moron doesn't have that cute/funny accent._

She raised her head from her knees and looked to the door. The door was still open and instead of a mean looking doctor there was a timid and beat up young man standing in the door way.

The said young man was still in his hospital gown, and looked rather uncomfortable. His hat was gone and his hair was mused and tangled. He had a small smirk on but it wasn't as mischievous as usual. His face was covered in scratches and cuts, he had one ugly one on his neck. His arms and legs were just as bed, but his left leg had fresh white bandages covering one of his worst ones, he had gotten it when they were in the swamps. Mudder had grabbed hold of him. Quite frankly he looked like shit… but really bad ass at the same time.

"Ellis?" She asked, she cleared her throat, _Damn my throat is raw._

"Hey… how are ya feelin'?

Without really thinking she jumped off of the sill and ran the short distance to the waiting Ellis. She threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his neck, the side the nasty cut WASN'T on. She could feel her emotions start rising to the surface, threatening to break through. She was shaking in an attempt to hold them at bay for at least a little longer. She just needed to enjoy this moment.

"Ellis I'm so happy to see you. I've missed you. Are you okay? How are you feeling. Oh it's so good to see you." She sighed… but this time contentedly.

Left4Dead

Ellis wrapped his arms around Infinity's waist and held her as close as he could without suffocating her. The twenty one year old was shaking now, he raised a hand to her hair and stroked it. She sighed.

He smiled and pulled her away for a moment, taking her in. The bruising around her neck was almost gone but it could still be seen. She had a cut above her eyebrow, her lip was split on the bottom, her right cheek was badly bruised; yellow, green and purple covered a good half of it.

Her hair was down and it was falling down into her face, he brushed it behind her ear.

Ignoring all of her questions for the moment, he pulled her close again, resting one hand on the back of her head and the other falling and rubbing his hand up and down her back.

"Ah'm alright, just overly happy ta see you. Ah was counting the minutes, Ah couldn't take it any longer Ah had ta see ya. How are you feelin'?"

"I'm feeling amazing now." He could hear the smile in her voice. He pulled her away again and cupped her face.

She smiled and pulled him out of the doorway and closed the door and locked it.

She left the door and sat on the bed. "I'm so tired of those doctors. They're terrible. We survive a bunch of flesh eating infected and come to a bunch a crappy mean doctors." Ellis looked down at Infinity's arms when she started to rub them up and down with her hands. He walked over to the bed and crouched down in front of her and took her hands gently into his and looked at her arms.

"What…."

"They couldn't find a good vein."

Ellis couldn't believe them, he didn't care who they were… this was not gonna fly. But it did when she grabbed his arm and gently pulled him back to the bed when he had tried to stand and "talk" to them.

"I'm fine. Really." She smiled gently at him, he smiled in return but he couldn't keep his eyes off of her arms. They were bruised and had scabs all over them.

His gaze was brought up to her face when she touched the side of his face. Her voice was dangerously mischeivous and low.

"Wanna go find the others?" She smiled wickedly.

He smiled just as wickedly in return and nodded his approval. Normally he would say "You need your rest." But she'd been through much worse, and if she was any where near as restless and bored he understood how she felt. Especially since he also missed the others… he was even beginning to miss Nick.

"It's been 9 hours and Ah miss them already."

"Then let's go get 'em." She grabbed his hand and led him to the door.

He grabbed hold of the knob and opened the door slowly, peeking out the crack as he did. Once the door was all the way open he looked both directions in the hallway, checking for any doctors that would stop them on their mission.

"It's clear." He whispered and then led her out of the room and down one of the halls.

They made their way down the hall, hand in hand, with their fingers intertwined. Both of them would check the doors. And if it was closed they would cross their fingers in hopes that one: it was the room with their friends and two: that their doctor wasn't inside.

Left4Dead

They had checked nearly the whole floor, hand in hand. No luck in finding their friends. They had one more wing of that floor before they would have to either quit and go back to their room or go to the next floor. Whatever floor this one was….

"Ellis?"

"Hm?"

"What floor are we on?"

"We're on floor four."

"Oh…" She replied, "Ellis?"

"Hm?"

"How did you know that?"

"It says the floor number over top of each elevator."

"Oh… Ellis?" She smiled.

Ellis laughed. "Hm?"

"Do you have any stories?"

Ellis laughed again and she turned to look at him, but they kept walking, looking in any open rooms.

"Not any that relates ta our situation…"

"That's okay. I just wanna hear you talk."

"Mmm, okaaaay. So this one time Keith and I were gonna make…"

"Ellis! Shut the hell up! Seriously, can't you just stop with the damn stories? Just for one DAMN second."

Both of them stopped dead in their tracks at Nick's voice. They ran back to the room that they thought they heard his voice come from, 408.

"Nick?" She asked.

"And Coach…" Coach replied.

Ellis and Infinity ran into the room. "Guys!" Ellis exclaimed.

Infinity refrained from hugging them both, they were both in different beds that were side by side, with the monitors and IV stands between them.

"How are you guys holding up?" Infinity asked.

"Great. Our doctor SUCKS man. We ask anything about you guys and he's like"you don't have a right to know blah blah blah" not to mention he's a real… do you see my arm?" Nick immediately complained.

"Sounds like we have the same doc Nick." Infinity groaned. "I had the same guy." He showed them her arms for evidence.

"Damn." Coach said.

"Yah." She agreed.

"Did you guys see Ro'?" Nick asked. Sitting up a little bit more.

"No we didn't see her." Ellis shook his head.

"Damn."

"She might be with the kids." Coach suggested.

"As in OUR kids… or just kids." Infinity asked, her voice raising an octave.

"Just kids."

"Alright. Where would they be?"

"They'd probably be on floor three." Coach shrugged.

"You're just guessing aren't you." Nick huffed.

"Yep." Coach laughed.

"Alright, well we'll look around for them." Infinity turned to go.

"WAIT!" Nick shouted. "I wanna come too."

"Same." Coach said.

"Alright fine. Hurry up. 'Fore the Cranky Doctor comes." Infinity rushed them.

The two men pulled out their IV's and got out of bed. Once they were all ready they looked around cautiously for their mean doctor. All of them afraid of being caught by him.

Infinity looked around the hallway, "it looks clear you guys."

The four of them walked around the fourth floor, trying to look the least amount of suspicious as they could while avoiding the doctor that was so abusive.

"Ah haven't seen ANY children. Maybe they are on another floor?"

Infinity shrugged, "I'll ask a nurse."

All three men started to whisper harshly for her to stop and not to do that as she walked up to the main desk where a nurse was typing on her computer.

Ignoring the protests she walked up to the nurse. "Excuse me?"

"Yes?"

"Uhm, where could I find the children's area?"

"Third floor." She said simply and went back to her typing.

"Thanks." Infinity said and turned back to the dead silent men. She sashayed past them, probably looking like a moron in her hospital gown but, it proved her point.

They jogged slightly to catch up with her. "Well?"

"Coach was right, floor three."

"Damn Coach, how do you do that?"

"Kids have chocolate."

Everyone looked at him funny but didn't comment.

They all went to the elevator and got on, Ellis pushing the button for floor three.

"So how are you guys doing?" Ellis asked.

"Fine. Relieved… paranoid…." Coach replied.

"I know the feeling." Infinity agreed nodding her head.

The elevator dinged and the group got off, and went on their search for Rochelle.

"Hey, there." Nick pointed to Rochelle who was sitting Indian style on the ground. She was only known because of her hair, still pulled into the short ponytail.

The group hastily made their way to the young woman, the entered the room only to become frozen in surprise. Around Rochelle were four children, and they all looked very familiar.

One girl in particular stood out to Infinity, the small girl with a teddy bear held close to her chest. Despite how she was at the apartment, close and cuddly always wanting to be around other people. Monica was the one who was more separated, Marie was in Rochelle's lap and Matt and Alex were sitting beside Rochelle holding onto her arms, as she spoke. Little Monica was sitting about 3 feet away from them all, listening from a distance. Rochelle's back was facing the group as well as Matt, Marie, and Alex. However Monica was facing them, and it didn't take long for Monica to see Infinity.

Monica stared for a while, which made Infinity worried that she was mad, but when she slowly started to stand and then walked over to her, her heart lifted a little. The walk turned into a run and soon Monica was scooped up back into Infinity's arms.

Monica wrapped her arms around Infinity's neck while Infinity held onto her tightly. "Hey honey."

The other children and Rochelle turned around and they all greeting each other. Rochelle immediately went to Nick and they exchanged a quick kiss and embrace.

Once everyone had said their hello's they all sat with each other talking and enjoying being with each other again.

Left4Dead

Infinity looked outside the house the sun coming through the window and warming her face, she smiled contently.

The children's happy squeals and laughs filling the entire house.

The football game was going and Coach and Nick's yells and shouts could be heard. Coach yelling at his favorite teams "retarded-ness" and Nick's celebrations at HIS team "kicking ass".

The smell of fresh food being cooked filled the air, food. REAL food. It has been 3 weeks since they were out of the hospital and 3 weeks and 2 days since they were out of the infected city, but freshly cooked food was still an amazing thing. Rochelle was a great cook.

She half jumped but laughed when two arms wrapped around her waist and the person buried his face in her neck and mumbled something.

"Ellis, you should be used to them by now. They watch it every Sunday."

"But they are worse than the kids…." Ellis complained, referring to the shouting adults in the other room.

Infinity shrugged and turned in his arms. "Why don't' you take the kids outside then…"

When Ellis moaned and laid his forehead on her right shoulder she laughed. "You are such a baby… you know that?"

"But Ah'm a cute baby right?"

She laughed again, "I'm not answering that."

"Why not?"

"I don't want you getting any ideas." She laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Mmm, what KIND of ideas?"

She kissed him lightly on the lips…. "I'm not answering that."

Ellis groaned, he was about to say something when Marie and Matt and Monica came running in followed closely by Alex.

Marie squealed when Alex tagged her. "Hey hey hey, guys! Tag is an outside game, go to the back yard." Infinity told them, pointing to the back door.

"Okay…"

Suddenly Infinity was "tagged", "Your it!" Marie shouted and ran with the others to the back yard.

Infinity laughed and chased after the four kids.

Left4Dead

Ellis laughed and went and sat on the couch with Coach and Nick to watch the football game.

He watched for a while before he turned to look out the glass back door where he could see Infinity running around the yard with the kids. She loved those kids just as much as they loved her, which was a lot of love.

"Lunch is ready." Rochelle announced.

"Ro' the game is on can't…"

"That's what TiVo is for Nick." She said condescendingly.

Nick huffed and paused the game.

The three of them got off the couch and Ellis went to go tell the kids and Infinity.

"Marie…" he called.

Both Marie's turned to him, though it didn't matter, because both of them were being told.

"Lunch's ready." He finished.

All four kids ran inside, and Infinity walked up to him. They grabbed hands and walked in together.

Left4Dead

Read Authors Note for further explaination.

Okay just so you all know. They do not all live in the same house together. It's more of a "We come and visit Infinity and Ellis' house every Sunday for football and lunch." thing.

Ellis and Infinity have the house and keep the kids with them. The kids aren't adopted but they are taken care of by the group of survivors.

I couldn't think of a way to explain all of that in the chapter without it being boring, so I thought I would explain here. If you don't'like reading authors notes and you didn't read this… than poo on you. You get to enjoy being confused. :-p

And to those of you who DID read this. KUDOS!

Anyway, there it is, the last chapter. I was talking to my boyfriend and I was so upset over this chapter. I was so scared it was gonna suck.

But I don't think it's TOO bad. I mean it's not the best but its…. It not BAD… It's kinda hard to end a story like this. Especially since they aren't being attacked and almost killed all the time. Rather they are safe and sound and crap. So it's kinda hard to slow down like that. I tried. Let me know how I did.


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